Cesar (2022), film still

About this Short Film

Cesar, by Habimana Fisca Jean Paul (Rwanda, 2022), is presented in the Focus on Ability International Short Film Festival. The short film addresses themes of employment, motivation and physical disability, and it involves an adult amputee and the use of a prosthesis. Rather than offering a broad overview, it gives a focused look at individual experience and practical challenges. Shown as part of our programme that highlights ability and achievement, Cesar invites audiences to consider questions about work, independence and adaptation. It sits comfortably alongside other films that celebrate the resilience and talents of people with disability.

Film Details

Country: Rwanda
Genre: Personal Story
Festival Year: 2022

Film Transcript

My name... it's at dawn in Sanaa. I am a technician, shared between two teams. I celebrated my amputation; it comes from the war in Rwanda. Indeed, here everyone lost their country. That's where I had a wound, after some major operations that were taken away. I don't think I was going to be a technician in Paris — everything was said — and when I met the right lateral vesical surgeon in Japan, he was the one who removed it all. He was the one who showed me how to make prostheses and then how to make devices.

Many people there were my friends, and when my friends came there I set up my personal workshop. The goal of my organisation is to help my disabled friends see, to walk again, to give them back their lives. I know how a tyre puncture feels; I know how much it hurts, I know how it discourages people. Even when I point to my own discouragement, I have been very discouraged because we all passed through that. We did exercises; I did all my seminars on devices. Someone contracted me at Le Mans, at Chantal, and that was very good; he spoke because...

I like it. As before, I was body and voice; I was as before. I dig deep, I have no problem. What makes a leg is just to explain what I have in my corner and in my hands, as this is a new patient, and that's where I gain experience of life. Even though I am disabled, I know how it hurts; I know if you are not furious, because that is what it feels like.

When my agenda has an elderly woman, it touches me. It is touching to see a woman who once walked but no longer walks. It touches me because I know how it feels when one of the legs does not work; it hurts, I passed a class, I know how it hurts. That's why I work a lot for the younger ones and for my friends, to make new pieces, to make new limbs. I'm only passionate about people. What I can tell my friends and the first time is: do not get discouraged, because these are the beginnings of nothing. Life is not finished. Having created a leg and passing it on is not the end of things; we have our lives ahead of us.

I say to all my friends, to all disabled friends, even to beggars: you must have confidence in yourself. First it is confidence in yourself; if you have confidence, life is easy, it is normal. Accidents happen everywhere and you must not think that because you are disabled, that is the end of life. Look at my workshop: if I am disabled, I have done all this because I accepted what I have. I accepted my condition and I accepted all the people who are not the messenger — I pay the costs. I can say that they are, and the people who are not and who wanted... but that is also a way, found everywhere, to bring them back. I would like to leave messages of...

Filmmaker

Habimana Fisca Jean Paul is the filmmaker behind this entry. See every Focus on Ability entry from Habimana Fisca Jean Paul.

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4 comments
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Egide Hakorimana 22/08/2022

Nice Job bro in-Law

G
Gina Mobus 22/08/2022

Wishing you congrats a d good luck

S
Sean Muvunyi 19/08/2022

Aaaw this man deserves an award

P
Patrick New 16/08/2022

Heart touching and this one deserves 5

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