The film por­trays a group of extra­or­di­nary women who choose boxing as a way of get­ting ahead in an African cap­i­tal caught in the tur­moil of its first demo­c­ra­t­ic elec­tions. Summer 2006 in Kin­shasa: Mar­ti­ni, Jean­nette, Hélène and Rosette spar every­day with Coach Judex in the old Tata Rafael sta­di­um, where in 1974 Muham­mad Ali defeat­ed George Fore­man in the most leg­endary bout in the his­to­ry of boxing. At dawn, thou­sands of people from the ghetto come to train here and polit­i­cal par­ties hold ral­lies. Par­al­lel to the pres­i­den­tial and par­lia­men­tary cam­paigns in the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Repub­lic of Congo, Judex strug­gles to orga­nize a women’s boxing tour­na­ment on a shoe­string budget. 

“VICTOIRE TERMINUS, KINSHASA is not only about boxing but explores and uses all the visual rich­ness of that world, which places its par­tic­i­pants under high pres­sure. We wanted to describe their strug­gle to sur­vive in their daily lives as much as their fights in the ring. Our young pro­tag­o­nists don’t have a “fem­i­nist” con­scious­ness, but they instinc­tive­ly refuse the posi­tion soci­ety has given them. Their deter­mi­na­tion, their inborn abil­i­ty to never give up are their best assets.“ (Renaud Barret & Flo­rent de la Tullaye)