Kayije Kagame
Kayije Kagame, a Rwandan-Swiss national has been selected among the top 10 outstanding and gifted film actors and actresses in Europe who will benefit from the ‘European Shooting Stars’ program at the Berlin International film festival.
At ‘European Shooting Stars’ due this February 20 in the Berlinate Palast, the selected talents will be given a chance to improve and market their skills, network with renowned film producers and agents under the program which is run by the European Film Promotion (EFP).
The EFP brings together film companies from 37 countries in Europe.
Some of the big names that have benefited from the ‘European Shooting Stars’ program include: Michael Coel- who features as “Aneka” in the Black Panther Wakanda Forever 2022 that was released recently
Others include: Italian actor Luca Marinelli, Swedish Alica Vikander, Sven Schelker (und morgen seid ihr tot), Kacey Mottet Klein (just kids), Luna Wedler (je suis karl) and Ella Rumpf (soul of a beast) and in 2022 Souheila Yacoub (the braves).
Kayije Kagame was offered this opportunity after featuring as ‘Rama’- a French film called ‘Saint Omer’ released in 2022 and produced by a French director Alice Diop.
In the film synopsis, Kagame (Rama) plays as a 30-year-old young woman novelist who attends the trial of Laurence Coly, who stands accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter after abandoning her to the rising tide on a beach in northern France.
Rama is planning to fashion a contemporary retelling of the myth of Medea from the case. But as the trial continues, nothing goes as she had expected, and the 4 months pregnant author will have to question the truth of her own experience of maternity.
Saint Omer marks Kayije Kagame’s feature-film debut that will feature as French entry for the International Feature Film Competition at the 95th Academy Awards and has attracted a great deal of attention.
After its premiere in Venice, where the film was awarded the Silver Lion, it screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, Viennale, Geneva International Film Festival and numerous other international festivals.
The film is currently screening in cinemas in France (distribution Les Films du Losange) and French-speaking Switzerland (distribution Cineworx). Theatrical release in Germany and German-speaking Switzerland is planned for March 2023.
Kayije Kagame, 36, was born in Geneva, Switzerland. She studied and graduated at the drama academy ENSATT in Lyon (École Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Techniques du Théâtre).
She has worked with legendary theatre director Bob Wilson, among others and she explores fields of contemporary art and stagecraft in Switzerland and abroad.
