Kenya and Germany / 2010 / 60mins / Drama / Swahili

14-year-old Abila lives with his parents in Kibera, one of the largest slums in East Africa. One morning, he discovers his father is ill and delirious, because he has gambled his soul away in the company of a spiritual woman. To rescue his father, Abila sets about looking for the woman. She gives Abila seven challenging tasks to save his father's lost soul, or else.

Hawa Essuman

Hawa Essuman performed in and worked on several theatre plays and a couple of films before she made her way into the world of production and then, eventually behind the camera. Working on TV commercials and documentaries provided her production experience before working as part of the directing team on a local TV drama series, Makutano Junction. In 2008 she wrote and directed her first film Selfish? and then three short films over the next year – The Lift, Cold War and Coming Out. Her film Soul Boy (2010) was screened at over 40 film festivals around the world and won some awards as a result, the Dioraphte Audience Award at the International Film Rotterdam 2010, the Signis Award at the Zanzibar International Film Festival and Best East African Film at Kenya International Film Festival 2010 being among them. Her 2017 documentary, Silas, won several awards at international festivals including the Documentary Audience Award at the 2018 Riverrun Film Festival, Best Documentary and Best International Film at the 2018 Zanzibar International Film Festival and the Amnesty International Durban Human Rights Award at the 2018 Durban International Film Festival. Learn More