Kenya / 2018 / 70mins / Documentary / English and Kiswahili

Filmmaker Philippa Ndisi-Herrmann embarks on a journey to investigate a gigantic port project that threatens to disrupt the rhythm of a small, Islamic island off the east African coast. As the film unfolds, fragments of Lamu life unfold like chapters in a book: a man scaling a fish, children bathing by a dock, a baptism, and it soon becomes apparent, that the real disruption is Philippa’s confrontation of a new spiritual awareness. With her deepest instincts guiding her, we see Ms. Ndisi Herrmann wrangle and navigate a new path, exploring the intricacies of her chosen faith.

Philippa Ndisi-Herrmann

Philippa Ndisi-Herrmann, born in 1985 in Germany, is an award-winning Kenyan-German artist employing the crafts of poetry, photography and filmmaking. Drawn to narratives about childhood, memory and women, Philippa has an interest in psychic ancestry, spirituality and the rhythm of the ocean. Her personal work is a mélange of autobiographical documentary and poetry. An alumna of IDFA Summer School 2013 (Amsterdam), Berlinale Talents 2016 and a fellow of RAW Académie 2016 (Dakar), her visual poem Seeds, won the Ecumenical Jury Award at Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen 2017. Her feature-length documentary, New Moon, has won various awards including Best Documentary at Oscar Qualifying Durban International Film Festival 2018. Learn More