Memories of Love Returned (2024) on Netflix
NR20241h 17mDocumentary
In April 2002, a filmmaker's car breaks down in Mbirizi, Uganda. While repairs are made, he finds the studio of Kibaate Aloysius Ssalongo, who has photographed the town since the 1950s.
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- Netflix4.3/5
- IMDb8.6/1024 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
In April 2002 a filmmaker's car breaks down in Mbirizi, a small town in central Uganda. Waiting for it to be fixed, he comes across a photography studio run by Kibaate Aloysius Ssalongo, who has been making portraits of the town's residents since the late 1950s. Kibaate's negatives hold five decades of local life, from weddings and graduations to ordinary moments, and most of the archive has never been seen. The encounter becomes a project lasting more than twenty years, as the negatives are gathered and digitized and people in the town are interviewed. The documentary also traces the history of post-independence Uganda that the photographs record.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Memories of Love Returned (2024)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film grew out of Mwine's accidental 2002 meeting with the photographer Kibaate in Mbirizi. Mwine spent over two decades visiting the town, conducting interviews and digitizing the negatives, and made the documentary while acting in The Chi and The Lincoln Lawyer.
- Kibaate's photographs are matched by a soundtrack of African pop music from the same eras, used as a "time-traveling device" to immerse viewers in specific decades of Ugandan history.
