ENCOUNTERS 2023: Le Spectre de Boko Haram

Every year since our founding in 2010, The Bioscope has proudly hosted screenings of The Encounters South African International Documentary Festival. Celebrating its 25 year as a festival, Encounters returns to The Bioscope once again with screenings from 23 June - 2 July. Tickets are R80. BOOKING ESSENTIAL.

SEE THE FULL BIOSCOPE SCHEDULE FOR ENCOUNTERS HERE

Le Spectre de Boko Haram

Cyrielle Raingou | Cameroon/France | 2023 | 75 min

This carefully observed film follows a group of children in the Far North Region of Cameroon as they live their lives under the constant threat of violence from Boko Haram. Gunshots ring out in the distance as they prepare for school, while soldiers patrol the schoolyard as the children play soccer and skip ropes. But despite the troubled texture of their lives and the fact that several of them have lost their parents to terrorist acts, the children’s innocence endures, even as they are recounting terrible things. The result is a delicately rendered antiwar film that celebrates the essential sweetness of children without underplaying the devastating psychological impact of violence.