Zeka Laplaine sometimes credited as José Laplaine, is a director and actor from Ilebo

Ilebo

Ilebo, formerly known as Port-Francqui, is a town in Kasaï District in the Democratic Republic of Congo, lying at the highest navigable point of the Kasaï River. As such, it is an important transport hub for ferries to Kinshasa and trains to Lubumbashi....

 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...

. The child of a Portuguese father and Congolese mother, he moved to Europe when he was 18. His 1996 short film Le Clandestin was featured at the 2010 Amakula International Film Festival in Uganda

Uganda

Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...

. He portrayed a cowboy

Cowboy

A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of...

 alongside Danny Glover

Danny Glover

Danny Lebern Glover is an American actor, film director, and political activist. Glover is perhaps best known for his role as Detective Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film franchise.-Early life:...

 in Death in Timbuktu

Timbuktu

Timbuktu , formerly also spelled Timbuctoo, is a town in the West African nation of Mali situated north of the River Niger on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. The town is the capital of the Timbuktu Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali...

, a film within a film

Story within a story

A story within a story, also rendered story-within-a-story, is a literary device in which one narrative is presented during the action of another narrative. Mise en abyme is the French term for a similar literary device...

 in the Council of Europe

Council of Europe

The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...

 Film Award-winning film, Bamako

Bamako (film)

Bamako is a 2006 film directed by Abderrahmane Sissako, first released at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival on May 21 and in Manhattan by New Yorker Films on February 14, 2007....

. Laplaine is a member of France's "Guilde Africaine des Realisateurs et Producteurs".

Laplaine's first short film was Le Clandestin, which he wrote, directed and acted in (playing a policeman in charge of a container dock in Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

). A French production

Cinema of France

The Cinema of France comprises the art of film and creative movies made within the nation of France or by French filmmakers abroad.France is the birthplace of cinema and was responsible for many of its early significant contributions. Several important cinematic movements, including the Nouvelle...

 set in Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

, Le Clandestin examines African emigration and questions the dream of Europe as a "Northern Paradise" for immigrants

Immigration to Europe

Immigration to Europe increased from the 1980s onward, as a result of people from developing countries wanting to escape war, oppression, natural disasters or poverty. Some EU countries saw a dramatic growth in immigration after World War II until the 1970s. Most European nations today have...

.

Director

Year	Film	Plot
1996 1996 in film Major releases this year included Scream, Independence Day, Fargo, Trainspotting, The English Patient, Twister, Mars Attacks!, Jerry Maguire and a version of Evita starring Madonna.-Events:...	Le Clandestin	A young African man jumps out of a container at Lisbon Lisbon Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...  harbour. Attempting to meet his cousin in town, he is pursued by a policeman. He never meets cousin, and eventually decides to return to Africa.
1996	Macadam Tribu	Set in Kinshasa Kinshasa Kinshasa is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The city is located on the Congo River.... , the film shows "unauthorised communities" forming within the official city, and the struggle of characters to survive. A community projecta theatrical production about popular rebellionprovides the backdrop to the fall of President Mobutu Sese Seko Mobutu Sese Seko Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu wa Za Banga , commonly known as Mobutu or Mobutu Sese Seko , born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, was the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1965 to 1997... .
2001 2001 in film The year 2001 in film involved some significant events, including the first of the Harry Potter series and also the first of The Lord of the Rings trilogy...	Paris: XY
2003 2003 in film The year 2003 in film involved some significant events. Releases of sequels took place with movies like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Pokémon Heroes, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,...	Le Jardin de Papa	A French couple honeymoon in Dakar Dakar Dakar is the capital city and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city on the African mainland... .
2006 2006 in film - Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2006...	Kinshasa Palace
2007 2007 in film This is a list of major films released in 2007.-Top grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2007...	Le Lac Sacré

Actor

Year	Film	Role
1996	Le Clandestin	A policeman.
1996	Terra Estrangeira Foreign Land Foreign Land is a 1996 action film directed by Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas.-Cast:* Alberto Alexandre - Maitre Machado* Fernando Alves Pinto - Paco* Alexandre Borges - Miguel* Canto e Castro - Porteiro* Laura Cardoso - Manuela...	Loli
2001	Paris: XY	Max.
2006	Bamako Bamako (film) Bamako is a 2006 film directed by Abderrahmane Sissako, first released at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival on May 21 and in Manhattan by New Yorker Films on February 14, 2007.... by Abderrahmane Sissako Abderrahmane Sissako Abderrahmane Sissako is an award-winning film director and producer who has often worked in Mali and France. Sissako is, along with Ousmane Sembène, Souleymane Cissé, Idrissa Ouedraogo and Djibril Diop Mambety, one of the few filmmakers from Sub-Saharan Africa to reach a measure of international...	A cowboy.
2007	Teranga Blues by Moussa Sene Absa Moussa Sene Absa Moussa Sene Absa is a film director, editor, songwriter, producer, and screenwriter. He was born in 1958 in Dakar, Senegal. He began his career as an actor, but eventually moved on to direct his own play La Légende de Ruba. Abda was honored for his screenplay Les Enfants de Dieu at the Francophone...	Zéka.

External links