An observational film about the modern-day Pygmy villages of the Central African Republic and two young Pygmies who travel to the city to sell makongo (roasted caterpillars, a regional delicacy) to fund a travelling tribal school.
Caterpillars follows Albert and André, two Central African Aka Pygmies, as they work to establish a new education system in their forest community. Having received an education, they become determined to pass their knowledge on, teaching classes for other Aka children every afternoon. Finding themselves short of funds to pay for more formalized schooling, they decide to raise money by harvesting the plump caterpillars of the forest (locally known as makongo). Once roasted, Albert and Andre bag the caterpillars and travel a considerable distance to sell them as a delicacy in the city. First-time filmmaker Elvis Sabin Ngaïbino beautifully captures the Central African forests and the Aka's rarely appreciated community with vivid imagery and sound design. Caterpillars is a remarkably multifaceted study of two men working toward modernization and building a sustainable future for their community by accessing the riches of the natural world around them.
— Nancy Pappas
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