To American sports fans, he’s Serge “i-BLOCK-ah”, a smiling giant in the mold of Shaquille O’Neal with deltoids the size of your head. But to his fellow Congolese, Ibaka is the one who got out: the lucky native son who escaped his war-torn homeland for the unimaginable riches of the NBA.
Son of the Congo, directed by Adam Hootnick for Grantland/ESPN, follows Ibaka on a return journey to his native Brazzaville to visit and dispense money among family, friends, charities, and demading crowds that materialize wherever he goes. As a young man, his mother dead, his father a political prisoner, and his uncles unwilling to offer him shelter, Ibaka lived on the streets for two years. Now, $50 million later, Ibaka financially supports those same inhospitable uncles.
“The crocodiles here, they know me,” Ibaka jokes on a ferry across the mighty African river. The film will, as intended, build Ibaka’s personal brand. He comes across as a genuinely generous spirit eager to grapple with the challenges of staying true to his roots. The project also resonates as self-aware sports journalism, a far-flung dispatch of our transcontinental gladiator culture and the strange vectors of opportunity it affords.
Son of the Congo
Documentary Spotlight, World Premiere
Wednesday, March 18, 11am, Violet Crown
Keep up with all our SXSW Film coverage at austinchronicle.com/sxsw/film.
This article appears in March 13 • 2015.
