The Congolese film “Viva Riva” won the “Best African Movie” award at the MTV Movie Awards. This recognition is invaluable for African cinema, offering publicity that money can’t buy and providing a significant boost when the film opens this weekend in New York City, Los Angeles, and Portland (OR). (It’s worth noting that foreign films make up just 2% of US cinema screens, and African films account for a small percentage of that.)

Set in Kinshasa, Viva Riva follows Riva, a small-time hustler who returns to his hometown of Kinshasa, Congo, after a decade away, bringing with him a major score: a fortune in stolen gasoline. Riva finds himself pursued by an Angolan crime lord (whose gasoline he stole), and matters are complicated further when he falls for the girlfriend of a local gangster.

This is no high-minded, French-funded “cinema” — it’s a gritty gangster film.

The film’s PR describes Kinshasa as a “seductively vibrant, lawless, fuel-starved sprawl of shantytowns, gated villas, bordellos, and nightclubs,” with Riva as its perfect embodiment. The advance publicity also emphasizes the explicit nudity and violence that feature prominently in Viva Riva.

The other finalists for the award were “A Screaming Man” (Chad), “Life, Above All” (South Africa) and “Restless City” (Nigeria).