A Country More Beautiful Than Before is a documentary film about a Congolese businessman in Brussels. The wanderings of Jean-Simon reveal a microcosm of informal commerce within the Congolese community. The everyday economic urgency of this ‘humble salesman’ is tied to the political and humanitarian urgency that animates the diaspora faced with the situation in Congo today and with Belgian colonial history. The film revolves around these two imperatives, in a negotiation between here and elsewhere, the past and the present.

The original music by Joe Mcphee was recorded in collaboration with Courtisane and KASK Conservatorium the day before his solo concert at the festival’s previous edition.