A documentary by Renaud Barret and Florent de la Tullaye. In French with English subtitles. Unrated. Opens Friday, February 24, at the Vancity Theatre

The filmmaking in this grainy, if ultimately exhilarating, documentary is so unvarnished it can’t even be called kitchen-sink realism; at the start of Benda Bilili!, kitchen sinks are luxuries little known to its main subjects. They are a coterie of musicians, mostly paraplegic from childhood polio, who push their wheelchairs and customized bicycles among beggars and street kids of Kinshasa, capital of the war-torn and ceaselessly exploited Democratic Republic of the Congo.

French filmmakers Renaud Barret and Florent de la Tullaye follow the burgeoning band from 2006 onward, when the group, led by singer-guitarists “Papa” Ricky Likabu and Coco Ngambali, recorded a song encouraging citizens to vote. The hard-drinking old-timers, frequently rehearsing on the quiet grounds of the Kinshasa Zoo, were later joined by able-bodied teenager Roger Landu, who fashioned his own remarkable instrument from an electrified tin can and a single guitar string.

After many scenes of unimaginable poverty, things jump to 2009, when their upbeat music, based in rumba (as is much of Cuba’s music) with touches of R & B and reggae, is captured on the album Très Très Fort. This leads quickly to a tour of European festivals, in which they are fervently embraced.

The band’s full name, Staff Benda Bilili, translates roughly from a local language as “Beyond Appearances Crew”. It’s particularly inspiring to catch them defying expectations at their first big outdoor fest, in France, where their joyously infectious sounds get an initially tentative crowd on its feet—while young Landu makes like Jimi Hendrix on his mini axe and some members jump out of their wheelchairs. Throughout the journey, their French-language lyrics remain relentlessly prosaic. By the end, at least, “We sleep on cardboard” turns into “We used to sleep on cardboard!”

Watch the trailer for Benda Bilili!.