2009
Single channel video
20 mins
Wanuri Kahiu’s sci-fi film, Pumzi, is about Africa in the future. The film takes its title from the Swahili word for “breath”. Set 35 years after a Third World War – a water war – it tells a story of belief and sacrifice. Kahiu addresses the already contemporary battle over scarce resources, developing the theme into a post-apocalyptical nightmare scenario, but not without leaving a glimmer of hope for the viewer. The set design for the elaborately staged opus was inspired by both 1950s film classics and traditional African art.
Pumzi was partially funded by Focus Features, Goethe Institut and Changa Moto Fund in Kenya, screened at Sundance in 2010.