Thursday, March 19 / 4:30 pm / Ottawa Art Gallery

Program: Paradise Heights, Memory of Princess Mumbi

Feature presentation \

Memory of Princess Mumbi

2025 / 79 minutes / Kenya, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia
Director: Damien Hauser
Writer: Damien Hauser
Language: English

Having had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival and having been selected for TIFF, this remarkable example of minimum budget meeting maximum imagination filmmaking is a sheer delight and is one of the most original films of this or any other year. Set in the year 2093, the inventive, dizzying plot revolves around young filmmaker Kuve, who travels to the remote village of Umata in order to document the aftermath of a war that has outlawed technology. Kuve is used to using AI in his work and hopes to capture the story of this place, but his plans are soon confounded when he encounters Mumbi, a local filmmaker who challenges him to make his film without relying on AI. Reluctant but also intrigued at the challenge and smitten by Mumbi, Kuve begins to film using his intuition, slowly discovering the intensity and poetry of life. As time passes, the complexity and intimacy of their relationship blossoms, and their work together will produce something entirely different than Kuve could ever imagine. A playful, clever, and light-footed marvel of a meta-movie, it’s a combination of romantic comedy, mockumentary, and an energetic, formally freewheeling Afrofuturist delight. You’ll not see a film anything like Memory of Princess Mumbi anytime soon.

Tom McSorley