Since 2014, the terrorist organisation Boko Haram has led strikes against the villages and people of the Far North Region of Cameroon. Today, this constant threat of violence has woven itself into daily existence.

In her profoundly affecting debut feature, Cyrielle Raingou follows a group of children as they carve out their own worlds amid the dangers of armed conflict. We meet the precocious Falta, studious and hardworking, eager to process her father’s death in a terrorist attack. Her classmate, Ibrahim, and his older brother Mohamad struggle with balancing their boyhood energy and a traumatic past that strays them from their eight and 11-year-old innocence.

Raingou, a native of the Far North Region herself, approaches her young subjects with a delicate and unobtrusive observance, allowing them to dictate the reality of their surroundings through their own words, movements and perspectives.

-- Dir. Cyrielle Raingou - 75min - 2023 - Cameroon --

"Shot matter-of-factly, there is however a fairytale or fabular quality to this Cameroonian documentary, in how it portrays the impact of the terrorist group Boko Haram through the lives of children, and how displacement and violence surface in their idle chatter and not-so-innocent drawings. When young truant brothers Mohamed and Ibrahim finally do a runner into the countryside to which they seem inextricably drawn, it almost has the air of some misadventure out of an early Terrence Malick film transplanted to the Sahel" - Guardian

"a distinct and profound study of the contrasts of a war zone: hope and despair, innocence and terrorism, the present and future, western influence and traditional culture....a story that centres on its filmmakers’ patient and honest gaze on the hovering presence of violence, seen through the eyes of innocents.” *Winner* - Tiger Award, Int. Film Fest. Rotterdam

"moving....one can find many moments of great sincerity” - Cineuropa

"“The emphasis here is not so much on what Boko Haram is or does, but rather its impact upon those whose lives have been shaped by its existence" - ScreenDaily

"The nonfiction film is a clear-eyed look at how everyday life and the accompanying humdrum tasks go on despite the threat of violence at any moment.” - Variety

"one of the great non-fiction films....of the year" - El Mundo

"the children overcome their trauma by telling each other stories imbued with magical realism, and playing and laughing in front of the camera, which espouses the children's perspective in order to better observe them on their long journey of resilience." - Visions du Reel