Black Europe Film Festival

Join us at 6pm for the reception - MEMORY OF PRINCESS MUMBI starts at 7 PM.

SCREENING AT THE CAPRI THEATER

After the screening of Memory of Princess Mumbi, Damien Hauser will lead a conversation on the affordances of generative AI and share his experience as an independent filmmaker—offering a love letter to cinema’s ability to safeguard the lives, histories, and memories we don’t want to forget.

ABOUT THE FILM

"One of the most original and striking films to emerge from the African continent." The Hollywood Reporter

“A film that will make you believe in the power of cinema again.” International Cinephile Society

"The Swiss-Kenyan Romantic Sci-Fi Mockumentary We All Need." Screenspace

Big-budget visions of a future Africa are still rare on the continent—less for lack of imagination than for lack of resources. Swiss-Kenyan filmmaker Damien Hauser responds with a bold experiment: the intentional use of artificial intelligence, not as a shortcut, but as a powerful, affordable tool for world-building. In Memory of Princess Mumbi, Hauser’s AI-enhanced environments are undeniably sumptuous—palaces, landscapes, and cinematic “restorations” that conjure a lost grandeur. Yet the film’s emotional center stays resolutely human: mourning, longing, rivalry, tenderness.

Unfolding through filmmaker Kuve’s rediscovered footage, Memory of Princess Mumbi follows an emerging documentarian who travels in 2093 to a secluded nation where a great war has revived ancient kingdoms and modern technology has vanished. Expecting devastation, Kuve instead finds a vital community living among ruins and rituals—and finds love, too. As the love triangle between Kuve, Mumbi, and the prince to whom she is promised tightens, the film glides between genres—mockumentary, sci-fi romance, backstage documentary, improvised drama—moving from interviews about war to red carpets, from intimate confession to playful tonal shifts.

Largely self-produced, with an extended post-production process carried almost entirely by Hauser himself, the film becomes both a feat of ingenuity and a meditation on cinema’s next chapter. In the end, Memory of Princess Mumbi isn’t only a “digital magic trick”—it’s a moving reminder that images matter most when they help us hold on to what disappears.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Director: Damien Hauser is a Swiss-Kenyan filmmaker, writer, and director working at the intersection of fiction, technology, and independent cinema. Born in Zurich in 2001, he began making short films at a young age. His work spans short films, music videos, and feature-length projects, driven by a passion for storytelling and formal experimentation. His films have screened at major international festivals including Tallinn Black Nights, IFFR Rotterdam, and BFI London.