“Clarck Ntambwe originally turned to boxing and went to the gym to learn how to fight so she could kill the guys that murdered her dad,” Matthew Leutwyler says of the young woman whose life story provided the basis for the powerful and moving feature film he wrote and directed against the backdrop of tragic conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Fight Like a Girl is also inspired by the memory of Leutwyler’s close friend Balezi “Kibomango” Bagunda, a former child soldier turned boxing champion who trained women to fight in the ring.

Ntambwe became one of Kibomango’s star fighters at the women’s boxing club he founded in Goma – the city where the trainer was gunned down soon after the movie was completed. Kibomango was killed by M23 rebels while he was helping Leutwyler evacuate 41 children from a village under attack in eastern Congo.

Leutwyler, an American director who has lived in Africa for the past 13 years, was at the gym, filming a documentary about Kibomango’s life, when Ntambwe arrived with retribution in her heart. “We have this in the documentary because, when we found out why Clarck wanted to learn how to fight, we sat her down and said: ‘You cannot join the gym if that’s the case. That’s not what we do,’” Leutwyler says. “So it took a while before Clarck was any good at boxing.”

The film charts the true story of how boxing helped Ntambwe piece together the broken strands of her life. She drew on her deepest reserves of resilience and, guided by Kibomango, reached the final of the African Boxing Championships. Ntambwe makes an impressive acting debut in the movie, playing the part of Aisha, the most serious fighter in the gym who helps the new girl. She now lives in Seattle and, Ntambwe confirms her initial motivation.

“Yes it is true,” she says as she switches between her functional English and Swahili. “At first, when I do boxing, it really was to get revenge on the people who killed my dad. In the gym they could see the anger. But my grandpa had been the first boxing trainer for Kibomango. He taught Kibo how to fight and so I was boxing for me and for my family.”

As she began to heal herself through boxing, Ntambwe became increasingly close to Kibomango. Her tears fall when I ask her about his death. It needs Leutwyler and Ama Qamata, who plays the lead role, to capture the essence of the inspirational trainer.

“I met Kibomango because I saw photos of the women he trained on Instagram,” Leutwyler says. “They were incredible photos and I was like: ‘Damn, these are so cool.’ I started searching and found a five-minute CNN clip on him from years ago. At that time he was teaching ex-child soldiers how to box. I have a restaurant in Rwanda and so I sent him a bus ticket and he came to meet me.

“He brought this giant box of photographs and we went through them and he told me his life story about being forced to be a child soldier at 12 and overthrowing the government in the late 1990s. A hand grenade went off in his face and blew out his eye. It was then that he decided to leave that life and chase the dream of being a boxer. He boxed in Russia and Venezuela and featured in a couple of fights on ESPN. It sounded like bullshit but, the more I looked into it, the more I realised it was all real.

“We were incredibly close for five years and it was odd because what does an educated guy from northern California have in common with a God-fearing former killer in Congo? But we both cared deeply about people that were vulnerable, and he saved my life three times. He was a legend in Congo and you’d walk with him through the streets and everyone would cheer: ‘Champion, Champion!’ But I became involved in this boxing story because Kibo wasn’t teaching these girls to become pros. They were all victims of sexual violence to some degree so he was using boxing as a way for them to get their independence back.”

The cast is a mix of professional actors and ordinary people from Goma. This lends a raw authenticity to many of the scenes but the film relies on Qamata’s sensitive portrayal of the young female boxer haunted by her past. The 27-year-old South African actor made her name in the Netflix drama Blood and Water and she is now the face of L’Oréal and Adidas in sub-Saharan Africa with more than 1m followers on Instagram.

Qamata says of Kibomango: “He was a very cool guy. I’d heard so many stories about him and when we met I was like: ‘OK, this totally checks out.’ But he was very strict on set during the boxing scenes. He was trying to get me to have that oomph and fire, and he really wanted the boxing to look as good as it could get. A lot of my training interactions with him were brutal. But it mattered to him that I knew what I was doing in the ring.”

She laughs when I ask if she liked boxing. “No. I knew nothing about boxing. My first time training with Kibomango I was so scared to punch him. I was like: ‘I’m very dainty but, oh my God, I don’t want to hurt you.’ He said: ‘Girl, you’re not gonna hurt me. Just punch me.’ It helped that I was training with Clarck and observing her gave me confidence to just go for it.”

How did her view of boxing change? “At first I really hated it. Boxing made me feel so unfit. It was like I was dying every time I finished shooting. I had just three weeks to learn how to box, but I began to understand what boxing does for Clarck and many other women. That’s very beautiful and very powerful.

“Even the title of the film, Fight Like a Girl, is often associated with being a sissy – ‘Oh, you punch like a girl.’ But the film shows that, despite the things that Clarck and these women have gone through, they’re able to come out the other side and fight in a very inspiring way.”

Ntambwe responds simply: “I like to box and now I miss boxing so much. The gyms in North Seattle are very [expensive]. But I watch boxing every day and I like Claressa Shields [the best female fighter on the planet].”

How did Ntambwe feel when she watched the film for the first time? “It was not easy because it’s my real life. I remembered my past and how hard it was. It made me cry.”

Qamata, who plays a version of Ntambwe as a young woman, says: “I was drawn to her resilience. I like playing characters that have fight in them because there’s a lack of that representation. I want to see more black African female characters who kick arse and are inspiring – because we are so often portrayed as victims. I like the fact that this young woman has this drive despite the terrible things that happened to her family.”

Leutwyler made the conscious decision not to place the traumatic conflict in the DRC at the forefront of the story even though the country has been torn apart for more than 30 years, since the genocide in Rwanda spilled across the border. Millions of people have died, and even more have been displaced, but as Qamata says: “When we think about war-ridden countries we use the numbers and statistics you read in newspaper headlines. But real people are living through such conflict and being in Congo opened up my perspective to the fact that these kids also have friendships, they fall in love, they have things in life that are so normal and relatable.

“What matters to me is championing African stories. The topic of what’s happening in the DRC and how people’s lives are affected is very important. But I’m very glad that we haven’t given up on the human story.”

In January 2025, Leutwyler was with Kibomango when his friend lost his life. “The village had been attacked [by M23 rebels] and we have an orphanage there. All the kids had fled with their housemother, Rebecca, and we weren’t sure where they were. But Kibo’s one of those guys that everyone gives answers to so he found out where they were. We got them fed and in two days we found a safe house for them. But one of our kids had been shot in the head and he was in and out of consciousness. I thought we needed to get him across the border [to Rwanda].

“The M23 took control of Goma and it was claustrophobic. Kibo, a boxer called Jerry Kabango and I took the kid to the closest [clinic]. There was just one female doctor left and there were no patients – nothing. We showed her this kid and she said: ‘I can’t take him.’ But Kibo convinced her that we had to leave him there for the night. She injected him with painkillers and hooked him up to an IV with the plan that Kibo and I would pick him up in the morning.

“But the next morning the guards at the gate were like: ‘You can’t go out, it’s too dangerous, blah blah blah.’ I said: ‘I’m going to get my kid and we’ll get the fuck out of Dodge.’ They knew Kibo, of course, so they let me go. But as I stepped out the gunfire started. Kibo told me: ‘You go that way, I’ll go this way and I’ll call you when the coast is clear.’ That was the last time I saw him.”

Did Kibomango see the film before he died? “Yes. We had a screening a month before for the crew and other people in Rwanda and he came. He was part of a Q&A and it was really awesome. But it would have been obviously much better had he been able to see how audiences around the world started responding to it when we did the festival circuit. We still miss him.”

For Ntambwe, “the western media only focuses now on the war between Israel and Iran. They don’t see anything happening in Congo. The rebels attack Goma and women are raped and people are dying every day. People need to understand that this has been happening for a long while. They need to know that we are all human. We also bleed. So it’s a blessing that, with this movie, people are interested in my story and the story of women in Congo.”

Qamata says: “What I’ve loved, going to festivals and screenings, is that people’s reactions to the film are always different. And every time that starts a new conversation. We want to see more stories like this and hear people saying: ‘Oh my goodness, did you see what she went through?’ If we can start a dialogue, then we’ve done something really powerful.”

Fight Like a Girl is in cinemas from Friday. Tickets are available for 22 May UK Premiere at London’s Genesis cinema