short · science fiction · festival-era
Set 35 years after a fictional Water War, Wanuri Kahiu's science fiction short follows a botanist living in a sealed underground habitat in a drought-ravaged East Africa, and premiered in the New African Cinema program at Sundance in 2010.
Fun fact: Pumzi is Swahili for breath, and the film went on to win awards at the Cannes Independent Film Festival, Carthage, and Venice's City of Venice award.
Notes: Partially funded by Focus Features, the Goethe-Institut, and Kenya's Changa Moto Fund. Pioneer priority: second Wanuri Kahiu entry alongside Rafiki (2018). Important: the Cannes Independent Film Festival is a separate, unaffiliated event from the Festival de Cannes; do not shorten this award to "won at Cannes" in any derived copy, as that would misleadingly imply the main festival.
Verification: verified · Sources:
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Poster source: Wikipedia