Kati Kati

Mbithi Masya's debut feature is set in a place that can only be depicted visually by film and our own imagination: the afterlife. It starts like in a dream, but for our protagonist, the young Kenyan woman Kaleche, it is more than real. She comes to her senses in a landscape characterised by open plains, without being able to remember who she is or how she ended up there. In a nearby oasis, she encounters a group of other young Kenyans who offer her an explanation: She is now dead. And this is the afterlife.

The way it is depicted in Kati Kati, being dead is quite comfortable and not at all bad. Still, the group's leader Thoma urges Kaleche to remember and come to terms with issues in her previous existence. However, the memories that come to life in Kaleche are both confusing and disturbing og forstyrrende. Soon she starts to suspect that something terrible has happened, and that the others are keeping it secret from her.

Kati Kati has been compared to films such as Wings of Desire and After Life, which depict life after death in equally fascinating ways. But Kenya's recent and quite violent history is an important part of the backdrop here, making Kati Kati into a spefically Kenyan tale. The film won the Fipresci award, presented by the international critic's federation, at the Toronto film festival this fall. It was praised by the jury for its "generous and poetic tone", as well as for the way it conveys "anger at personal and political injustice." Cato Fossum

Mbithi Masya is a filmmaker, writer and artist from Nairobi, Kenya. He previously worked in the advertising business. As part of the renowned experimental artists' collective Just A Band he has made a series of installations and music videos. Kati Kati is his first feature film, and has bee screened at more than 40 festivals across the world.