African FILM FESTIVAL New Zealand

Synopsis

Premiered at Berlin IFF

Akuol is the daughter of Rebecca de Mabior, and both are subjects of this very personal film about the family’s connections with the formation of South Sudan and her mother’s continuing vital role in its leadership. Akuol was 16 when her father, leader of the South Sudanese Liberation Movement, was killed in a helicopter crash just three weeks after becoming vice president of Sudan. Born and raised in exile, she follows her mother and sister back to the new republic with her camera, where they have found useful roles. She films conversations both intimate and public with her mother and sister; she records her mother becoming one of the vice presidents of South Sudan, continuing the work of her father. With her camera Akuol also reveals her own struggle to find a place in her newly formed country, questioning whether and how she can make South Sudan her home. Her mother, Rebecca, is a quiet hero, one of those many African women who are making significant contributions in their countries, but whose perspectives are often “undervalued and unrepresented,” according to Akuol. She has made this film expressly in order to redress the balance.