The Films of NBO Film Festival 2025: Stories From a Continent That Refuses to Be Silent
This October, Nairobi lights up once again with the glow of cinema. The NBO Film Festival 2025 returns for its 7th edition, taking over Unseen Nairobi and Prestige Plaza Cinemas from 16th to 26th October.
This year’s program roars. From Lagos to Khartoum, Accra to Dar es Salaam, Nairobi to Cape Town, the films screening this year hold a mirror to the continent’s imagination, heartbreak, and humour. They traverse wars and weddings, ghosts and governments, mothers and myth all through the lens of filmmakers who know that storytelling is not a luxury here. It’s survival.
Here are some of the unmissable titles defining this year’s cinematic journey:
HOW TO BUILD A LIBRARY (Opening Film)
Directors: Maia Lekow, Christopher King | Kenya
Two Nairobi women take what was once a whites-only library and turn it into a sanctuary for culture, art, and belonging. Lekow and King’s opening film is a love letter to reclamation — a gentle yet radical act of rewriting history.
MOTHERS OF CHIBOK
Director: Kachi Benshon | Nigeria
Four Nigerian mothers fight through a farming season with faith as their compass, their resilience an act of defiance against tragedy. “Mothers of Chibok” is a quiet revolution — a story of women who refuse to be erased, and who remind the world that grief and hope can coexist in the same breath.
THE WEEKEND
Director: Daniel Oriahi | Nigeria
A visit to the in-laws turns into a weekend of secrets, betrayal, and survival in this gripping Nigerian thriller. Daniel Oriahi threads domestic tension with social critique — proving once again that the most dangerous wars are often fought at the dinner table.
MY FATHER’S SHADOW
Director: Akinola Davis | United Kingdom
A road trip through political unrest becomes a haunting meditation on fatherhood, loss, and reconciliation. Davis crafts a visually poetic journey of estranged sons and a father trying to outrun his own shadow — both personal and political.
IT’S A FREE COUNTRY
Director: John ‘JJ’ Jumbi | Kenya
Street gangs, crooked politicians, and a mysterious woman collide in this gritty Nairobi tale that feels all too real. Jumbi’s world is raw and restless, pulsing with the chaos and charm of a city constantly negotiating its freedom.
MEMORY OF PRINCESS MUMBI
Director: Damien Hauser | Kenya, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia
In a future where technology is banned, a young filmmaker rediscovers the soul of storytelling. Hauser’s sci-fi fable blends mythology, memory, and rebellion — a love letter to the power of human imagination in a world that has forgotten its own stories.
THE PEOPLE SHALL
Directors: Nick Wambugu, Mark Maina | Kenya
Kenya’s Gen Z uprising takes centre stage in this urgent documentary that captures a generation’s hunger for justice and reform. Defiant, restless, and deeply emotional, “The People Shall” doesn’t just observe protest — it becomes one.
WIDOW CHAMPION
Director: Zippy Kimundu | Kenya
One woman’s fight for land rights becomes a larger battle against patriarchy and tradition. Kimundu’s storytelling burns with quiet fury, reminding audiences that the political is always personal — especially for women.
THE FISHERMAN
Director: Baker Karim | Ghana
A fisherman, a talking fish, and an unlikely adventure to Accra. Karim’s fable swims in magical realism and humour, making it both a folk story and a philosophical voyage — a reminder that African cinema doesn’t just document reality; it dreams beyond it.
THE DOG
Director: Baker Karim | Kenya, Sweden
A tense, neon-soaked thriller exploring obsession, power, and the illusion of freedom. Karim’s duality — balancing Kenyan grit with Scandinavian style — creates a cinematic fever dream that’s both unsettling and hypnotic.
SAYARI
Director: Omar Hamza | Kenya
A runaway groom, a small-town BnB owner, and a road trip neither expected. “Sayari” is tender, funny, and full of Kenyan charm — the kind of rom-com that believes in love, but not without self-discovery first.
SUGAR ISLAND
Director: Johanne Gomez Terrero | Caribbean / Global South Focus
Two strangers stranded on a remote island fight for hope and redemption. Terrero’s lush, emotional storytelling situates “Sugar Island” between dream and despair — a poetic reminder of how isolation can become revelation.
NANA
Director: Mathews Joseph Mkoga | Tanzania
Love and crime collide in Dar es Salaam’s unforgiving streets. “Nana” is fast-paced, seductive, and deeply human — a portrait of survival where tenderness must learn to live alongside danger.
MOTHER CITY
Directors: Miki Redelinghuys, Pearlie Joubert | South Africa
Cape Town becomes the battleground for dignity, justice, and home. “Mother City” is both an elegy and a call to arms — a gripping documentary about activists fighting for the right to belong in a city built on exclusion.
MEMORIES OF LOVE RETURNED
Director: Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine | Uganda
A forgotten archive, a man haunted by photographs, and a reckoning with time. Mwine’s debut as a director is as lyrical as it is intimate — exploring memory as both wound and gift.
MATABELELAND
Director: Nyasha Kadandara | Zimbabwe
Across the deserts of Zimbabwe and Botswana, a son retraces his father’s footsteps and confronts the unspoken burdens of masculinity. Kadandara weaves silence, distance, and tenderness into a visual elegy for the men who were never allowed to cry.
KHARTOUM
Directors: Ibrahim Snoopy Ahmad, Timeea Mohamed Ahmed, Rawia Alhag, Philip Cox, Anas Saeed | Sudan
Amid war and displacement, five Sudanese artists rebuild their world through art and memory. “Khartoum” is not just a film — it’s testimony. A chronicle of resilience told by those who refuse to disappear.
NBO Film Festival 2025 is a cinematic atlas one where every story points to an Africa that is beautifully, unapologetically alive.
Screenings run daily at Unseen Nairobi and Prestige Plaza Cinemas. Tickets drop soon — and if you’re lucky, you might just find your next favourite filmmaker seated right beside you in the dark.