TUNEFUL: Band members at jam session (ENRICO DAGNINO)

The album

Life is easier now, but back in 2004, getting Très Très Fort made was an arduous process. "At that time, nobody gave a damn about a band of crippled homeless Africans," Barret explains succinctly. The band and the filmmakers decided to work together to record an album. "We started the whole thing with our own money in 2004, got almost ruined twice in five years. We worked alone for [two and a half years], financing the plane tickets, the rehearsals, the aborted studio sessions," says Barret.

There were many problems the band had to deal with constantly. As Barret puts it, "[The] Benda Bilili gave us full access to their cruel and brutal world – a world of outcasts, full of street kids, petty thieves, one-dollar whores, gangsters. Violence and hunger are everyday issues."

"Yet," Barret points out, "the people from the streets were not an obstacle. Problems usually came from unpaid cops and drugged soldiers. But, the true obstacle was psychological. Being European, it's really disturbing to witness all the suffering and injustice in the Benda Bilili's everyday lives, and try to stay [sane]."

Just before 2007, Belgian record label Crammed got involved to help co-produce the album. Recording was done in Kinshasa, at the city's Jardin Zoologique. It had been Staff Benda Belili's long-time rehearsal space, so to speak. Comparing it to a kind of "lost paradise" in a Q&A session during the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes, Barret and de La Tullaye explained that the zoo is a place where people from the streets go to rest, to get a break from the commotion of their daily lives. But, "it's not a good place to record an album," says Barret. According to Crammed, the sounds of toads and dilapidated cars driving by are like guest artists on Très Très Fort.

The film

Crammed marketed and launched Staff Benda Bilili's album relatively quickly. Included on the CD were promotional videos about the band directed by Barret and de La Tullaye. The filmmakers originally had had no intention to make a movie about the Benda Bilili, explained Barret. "Nonetheless," he says, "we started to film their everyday lives. We thought that in a difficult [economic] context, images would be a key to 'sell[ing]' their music abroad." But after three years of documenting they realized there was enough footage for a feature-length film.

Nothing happened until 2009, though; Barret and de La Tullaye had run out of money. The band was about to embark on a major European tour, and the filmmakers were crestfallen at their possibly-failed film. Luckily two producers from a fledgling French film company came forward with much-needed financing. "That was a true miracle," says Barret.

Cannes was "a big surprise to us," he continues. The reception there was overwhelmingly positive, and Benda Bilili! is set for a European release this month – but chances are Barret and de La Tullaye will be celebrating with the band in Japan. "We are one big happy family," Barret notes. "We feel we've been privileged to hang out with them. Their brilliant music acts as a magical cure on all the people from the street; it worked on us, too."

In Barret's words, Staff Benda Bilili are the spokesmen for Kinshasa's people from the street. "Loud, fearless, well-educated, and well-organized" is the description the record label Crammed gives the city's handicapés, implicitly extending it to the band members as well. "No matter how, stand up and fight!" is how Barret describes their message, a twist on Staff Benda Bilili's call to "look beyond appearances."

Along with their message, it doesn't hurt that Staff Benda Bilili's songs are fantastically danceable. One of Barret's personal favorites is the track "Avramandole," "a nasty Afro-rock tune with a hint of James Brown funk, and a great dose of tribal trance mixed with crooning Congolese voices." The fusion is so unique, "you can't say it's 'African music'," he explains. "It's just a dance floor hit wherever you come from."