Available on DVD: “Viva Riva!”

Patsha Bay Mukuna has the title role in Viva Riva!

Repackaging the revenge thriller in parakeet colors and distinctive African beats, the Congolese writer and director Djo Tunda Wa Munga gives Viva Riva! a playful sensuality that goes a long way toward disguising formula.

Opening in Kinshasa (Munga’s hometown) amid the bedlam of a fuel shortage, the story swirls around Riva (Patsha Bay Mukuna), an irrepressible thief newly arrived from Angola with a truckload of hijacked gas. Pausing only to grab a fistful of cash and a partying partner (Alex Herabo), Riva embarks on a drinking-and-whoring spree that is abruptly derailed when he falls for Nora (Manie Malone), the flame-haired moll of a local gang lord. A swan among pigeons, Nora becomes Riva’s obsession and his Achilles’ heel — at least as far as a posse of bloodthirsty Angolan thugs is concerned. They and their chillingly debonair frontman (Hoji Fortuna) would like their gas returned and Riva’s head on a spike.

As fleshy love scenes knock up against gory gunfights, Viva Riva! is at pains to prove that where money leads, sex and violence flamboyantly follow. In nightclubs, brothels and back streets, Antoine Roch’s excited camera charges around corners and lingers, rapt, while a military commander enjoys a time out with her female lover. Crime and corruption grease every transaction, but the director regards the raw enterprise of his country without judgment. He — and his wily antihero — are much too busy riding the gas pedal.