I’m Olisay N. Murenzi, a 21-year-old writer-director born and raised in Belgium, but I’m originally from Rwanda. After completing all my schooling in Brussels, I moved to Amsterdam and studied Political Science at UVA. I realised storytelling was where I belonged and earned a Bachelor’s in Film Production at SAE Institute.
Over time, I’ve written, produced and directed three short films, contributed to a documentary, and completed my first feature screenplay. My work explores grounded, familiar characters because stories matter most when someone sees themselves in them. My style is bold and intimate, with dialogue that sounds like life: fast, overlapping, and messy, with a lived-in feel. It is coupled with narrative structures that loop and fracture time. The visuals are shaped by long takes, unusual lighting, and lenses that reshape familiar spaces.
I aim to evoke, confront and connect: to create films that live in the tension between beauty and darkness, failure and hope. For me, filmmaking is freedom, a mirror, a question and an answer at once.
About Me
Hello — I’m Olisay N. Murenzi, a 21-year-old writer-director born and raised in Belgium but from Rwanda.
After completing all my schooling in Brussels, I moved to Amsterdam and began a year of Political Science before realising that film and storytelling were where I truly belonged. That led me to earn a Bachelor’s in Film Production at SAE Institute Amsterdam and set me on the path of creating stories.
Over time I’ve written, produced and directed three independent short films, contributed to a documentary project, and completed my first feature-length screenplay. In each of these works I explore characters who feel real and familiar, because I believe story matters when someone watching sees themselves in it.
My style is bold and grounded. I write dialogue that sounds like life: fast, overlapping, messy, beautiful.
I build narrative structures that don’t just move forward, but circle back, fracture time, ask you to remember and feel.
Visually, I’m drawn to long takes, unconventional lighting, and lenses that bend familiar spaces into unexpected ones.
My ambition is to evoke, confront and connect — to create work that lives in the inter-space between beauty and darkness, success and failure.
For me, filmmaking represents freedom, a statement, a mirror, a question and an answer all at once.