More Than I Want to Remember (2022) Movie Script
1
My name is Mugeni.
I'm coming from Congo.
I was born in a place
called Murambya.
Our village was so green.
Everybody was a farmer.
Doesn't matter
if you are rich or poor.
We share all we have.
I grow up knowing
there is a people
who doesn't like us,
my tribe, Banyamulenge.
I always think,
if I meet with them,
they're gonna do
something bad to me
'cause I'm different to them.
One night,
my family was sleeping...
All my family, my father,
my siblings, my mom,
but when we sleep,
we heard the noise
like the bomb, the shooting.
It feels so close
to where I live.
They was burning the houses.
We feel like we're gonna die
inside this house.
We just ran.
Ran to different directions.
I was thinking it's two choice.
I'm gonna live or die.
I was 14 and I was
all by myself in the forest.
I find the guy
who was running, hiding,
saving his life, same as me.
I didn't know any place
besides my village.
I just continue following him.
He has the child who was
the same age I was.
I didn't know the guy.
He just take me as his child.
We were sleeping in forest,
sleeping for, like, a month.
We didn't eat.
We just sleep there
on the leaves.
We didn't have nothing
beside God.
It was just thinking
about my family.
I didn't know
what to tell to myself.
Then the man told us
we are in different country.
When we got to Kenya,
they guy, he told me,
"Oh, okay, I have nothing.
Just try to find
where you can go."
He left me.
I didn't judge him.
He saved my life.
I was really scared
seeing people I'd never seen.
I didn't even know
if they speak Swahili
'cause I've never been in Kenya.
We have the same color of skin,
but they are different people.
I was like, "I have to go
to find church
for Congolese people."
They showed me
where the church was.
Then I sit near to this girl.
She was, like, 22 or 20.
Her name is Esparance,
and I told her everything.
She take care of me, everything.
After a couple months,
when people was
inside the church praying,
Kenyan police came to say,
"Oh, you can't be over here."
They took her
to the refugee camp.
They decided to take everybody,
all Congolese.
I don't know the reason why.
I wasn't there.
I didn't know
what to do after that.
I used to dream, like,
seeing blood all over.
People got murdered.
Like, all the baddest stuff.
Like, screaming,
calling my brother,
calling my mom.
It was, like, feeling,
like, so real to me.
It was the worst part ever.
Dream somebody you love
and then don't see them.
I would just ask,
like, "Why, God?
"Why'd that happen to me?
"I'm alone.
I don't have a family
no more."
The other days
feel like it's okay.
You want to make
yourself stronger,
'cause you can't
just tell your heart
to be negative all the time.
You want to build your heart
to make stronger.
I find this
United Nation program.
It helps with refugee
to be resettled
to a different country.
I told them, "I'm alone.
I don't have nobody."
They ask, most of the time,
the same questions,
just to make sure
what you said is true.
You never know
when you're gonna be approved.
It took two years.
The day I find out
I was coming to United State,
I didn't know if I should be
excited or not,
'cause I was like,
"Oh, I'm coming from Congo
"to Kenya, go to USA.
I don't know nobody
over there."
When I landed to USA
in Michigan,
I met people
who was waiting for me.
In the morning, I woke up.
I didn't speak English,
so I was just,
like, looking at them.
I didn't know any words
that I can use.
I was just, like, thinking,
how I'm gonna talk
to these people,
how I'm gonna talk
to my foster mom.
I don't know
what to say to them.
The first meal I had
with them, it was eggs.
That's all the thing
I know how to say, eggs,
so I was eating eggs every day.
Telling my foster mom,
I want eggs, eggs, eggs.
It was like a song for eggs.
It didn't take me very long
to learn English.
I was in school.
I didn't talk about
where I came from.
They know I came from Africa.
Some, they can't
understand my accent,
which was, like, hard
for me to make friends
'cause I'd be like, "Oh,
maybe if I talk,
they're gonna laugh at me."
I was just keeping to myself.
My foster mom,
she search on Google
trying to find me
a Congolese church.
One day,
she dropped me off over there.
I was very surprised to seen
people I know in Michigan.
I met one family who used to be
the neighbor in Kenya
where I was living.
I made them a friend.
I told the father of the family,
"I'm trying... if I can find
my family
"'cause I'm here lonely."
He was like, "Oh, okay.
Well, I know people,
so I can try to help you."
I'll be, like, asking him
all the time,
"Have you heard anything
about my family?"
One day, he called me.
He said,
"Someone told me your mom
and siblings,
"they live in Uganda."
"Are you serious?"
I ask him so many times.
"Are you serious?
Are you serious about it?
Who told you?"
My heart was very speechless.
She's alive.
It was three years.
It was three years
since I have talked to her,
I've heard her voice.
I was like,
"I can't wait
to say something to her."
She was very shocked.
"Where are you?
How'd you get there?
Like, how'd you get to USA?"
I was like, "It's a miracle."
She ask me, "Where is your dad?
"I haven't seen your dad
since the time we ran out
from the war."
In 2019, in summer,
I saw my mom for the first time
in five years.
My mom looked beautiful,
more than I remember.
Uh...
I can't cry.
Like, my tears was, like, stuck.
Like, I have this happiness
inside of me.
It makes me feel like
where I was broken,
is got fixed.
My mom, she said something
to my foster mom.
She said, "Mugeni,
she's my daughter,
"but she'll always be
yours as well.
So, Mugeni,
she have two moms now."
Not all people can say that.
It was, like, so kind
for her to say that nice words
to somebody you've never met.
So I live in Michigan
but I don't like snow.
I work in a factory
for the automotive industry.
I work overtime
so that I can send the money
to Mom in Africa
so they can have a better life.
I helped my mom
to start a business in Uganda,
and then I wanna help
to start more businesses
over there.
As I grow,
I'm taking care of my family
'cause I became like a father.
He's the one who was
gonna do what I'm doing,
but I'm doing it for him.
It just makes me proud to do it.
I learned to be strong
when things are hard.
I learned from my mom.
My name is Mugeni.
I'm coming from Congo.
I was born in a place
called Murambya.
Our village was so green.
Everybody was a farmer.
Doesn't matter
if you are rich or poor.
We share all we have.
I grow up knowing
there is a people
who doesn't like us,
my tribe, Banyamulenge.
I always think,
if I meet with them,
they're gonna do
something bad to me
'cause I'm different to them.
One night,
my family was sleeping...
All my family, my father,
my siblings, my mom,
but when we sleep,
we heard the noise
like the bomb, the shooting.
It feels so close
to where I live.
They was burning the houses.
We feel like we're gonna die
inside this house.
We just ran.
Ran to different directions.
I was thinking it's two choice.
I'm gonna live or die.
I was 14 and I was
all by myself in the forest.
I find the guy
who was running, hiding,
saving his life, same as me.
I didn't know any place
besides my village.
I just continue following him.
He has the child who was
the same age I was.
I didn't know the guy.
He just take me as his child.
We were sleeping in forest,
sleeping for, like, a month.
We didn't eat.
We just sleep there
on the leaves.
We didn't have nothing
beside God.
It was just thinking
about my family.
I didn't know
what to tell to myself.
Then the man told us
we are in different country.
When we got to Kenya,
they guy, he told me,
"Oh, okay, I have nothing.
Just try to find
where you can go."
He left me.
I didn't judge him.
He saved my life.
I was really scared
seeing people I'd never seen.
I didn't even know
if they speak Swahili
'cause I've never been in Kenya.
We have the same color of skin,
but they are different people.
I was like, "I have to go
to find church
for Congolese people."
They showed me
where the church was.
Then I sit near to this girl.
She was, like, 22 or 20.
Her name is Esparance,
and I told her everything.
She take care of me, everything.
After a couple months,
when people was
inside the church praying,
Kenyan police came to say,
"Oh, you can't be over here."
They took her
to the refugee camp.
They decided to take everybody,
all Congolese.
I don't know the reason why.
I wasn't there.
I didn't know
what to do after that.
I used to dream, like,
seeing blood all over.
People got murdered.
Like, all the baddest stuff.
Like, screaming,
calling my brother,
calling my mom.
It was, like, feeling,
like, so real to me.
It was the worst part ever.
Dream somebody you love
and then don't see them.
I would just ask,
like, "Why, God?
"Why'd that happen to me?
"I'm alone.
I don't have a family
no more."
The other days
feel like it's okay.
You want to make
yourself stronger,
'cause you can't
just tell your heart
to be negative all the time.
You want to build your heart
to make stronger.
I find this
United Nation program.
It helps with refugee
to be resettled
to a different country.
I told them, "I'm alone.
I don't have nobody."
They ask, most of the time,
the same questions,
just to make sure
what you said is true.
You never know
when you're gonna be approved.
It took two years.
The day I find out
I was coming to United State,
I didn't know if I should be
excited or not,
'cause I was like,
"Oh, I'm coming from Congo
"to Kenya, go to USA.
I don't know nobody
over there."
When I landed to USA
in Michigan,
I met people
who was waiting for me.
In the morning, I woke up.
I didn't speak English,
so I was just,
like, looking at them.
I didn't know any words
that I can use.
I was just, like, thinking,
how I'm gonna talk
to these people,
how I'm gonna talk
to my foster mom.
I don't know
what to say to them.
The first meal I had
with them, it was eggs.
That's all the thing
I know how to say, eggs,
so I was eating eggs every day.
Telling my foster mom,
I want eggs, eggs, eggs.
It was like a song for eggs.
It didn't take me very long
to learn English.
I was in school.
I didn't talk about
where I came from.
They know I came from Africa.
Some, they can't
understand my accent,
which was, like, hard
for me to make friends
'cause I'd be like, "Oh,
maybe if I talk,
they're gonna laugh at me."
I was just keeping to myself.
My foster mom,
she search on Google
trying to find me
a Congolese church.
One day,
she dropped me off over there.
I was very surprised to seen
people I know in Michigan.
I met one family who used to be
the neighbor in Kenya
where I was living.
I made them a friend.
I told the father of the family,
"I'm trying... if I can find
my family
"'cause I'm here lonely."
He was like, "Oh, okay.
Well, I know people,
so I can try to help you."
I'll be, like, asking him
all the time,
"Have you heard anything
about my family?"
One day, he called me.
He said,
"Someone told me your mom
and siblings,
"they live in Uganda."
"Are you serious?"
I ask him so many times.
"Are you serious?
Are you serious about it?
Who told you?"
My heart was very speechless.
She's alive.
It was three years.
It was three years
since I have talked to her,
I've heard her voice.
I was like,
"I can't wait
to say something to her."
She was very shocked.
"Where are you?
How'd you get there?
Like, how'd you get to USA?"
I was like, "It's a miracle."
She ask me, "Where is your dad?
"I haven't seen your dad
since the time we ran out
from the war."
In 2019, in summer,
I saw my mom for the first time
in five years.
My mom looked beautiful,
more than I remember.
Uh...
I can't cry.
Like, my tears was, like, stuck.
Like, I have this happiness
inside of me.
It makes me feel like
where I was broken,
is got fixed.
My mom, she said something
to my foster mom.
She said, "Mugeni,
she's my daughter,
"but she'll always be
yours as well.
So, Mugeni,
she have two moms now."
Not all people can say that.
It was, like, so kind
for her to say that nice words
to somebody you've never met.
So I live in Michigan
but I don't like snow.
I work in a factory
for the automotive industry.
I work overtime
so that I can send the money
to Mom in Africa
so they can have a better life.
I helped my mom
to start a business in Uganda,
and then I wanna help
to start more businesses
over there.
As I grow,
I'm taking care of my family
'cause I became like a father.
He's the one who was
gonna do what I'm doing,
but I'm doing it for him.
It just makes me proud to do it.
I learned to be strong
when things are hard.
I learned from my mom.