(Past Event) Champlain Film Festival: Afrotōpia (with virtual filmmaker discussion)

Directed by David Mboussou. 128 minutes (followed by discussion). Not Rated. In French with English subtitles.

Ezekiel, a 25-year-old aspiring filmmaker, lives in the heart of the Congo Basin under the authority of his father, Maurice, a powerful businessman who opposes his artistic ambitions. When Ezekiel is forced to join the family logging business, he discovers that Maurice plans to exploit a sacred forest, the last refuge of an indigenous community. As he uncovers a buried colonial-era family secret, Ezekiel must choose between loyalty, personal freedom, and the fate of his people. Blending tradition and modernity to portray contemporary, cross-cultural Africa, Franco-Gabonese filmmaker David Mboussou’s “ecological manifesto” embraces the healing of historical wounds and explores the stigmatization of African cultures, the sacred link between people, nature, and spirit, and the resilience that shapes our future.