ENCOUNTERS 2026: Fantastique

Every year since our founding in 2010, The Bioscope has proudly hosted screenings of The Encounters South African International Documentary Festival. Now celebrating its 28th year as a festival, Encounters returns to The Bioscope once again with screenings at The Bioscope from 5 - 14 June. Tickets are R90. 

SEE THE FULL BIOSCOPE ENCOUNTERS PROGRAM HERE.

Fantastique (13PG)

Dir. Marjolijn Prins | Belgium/France/Netherlands/Guinea| 2025 | 71 min.

Fourteen-year-old Fanta lives in Conakry, Guinea, balancing school, household chores, and caring for her ailing mother. In the quiet gaps of her routine, she practices gymnastics, nurturing a dream of becoming an acrobat in the Amoukanama Circus Company, where discipline, repetition, and bursts of motion become her language of freedom. When renowned performer Balla Moussa Bangoura returns to assemble a new touring show, the atmosphere shifts, and Fanta is offered the opportunity to join the troupe. As rehearsals intensify, she is measured against a new level of discipline and expectation, navigating a demanding, male-dominated space while bearing the weight of family and tradition. This coming-of-age documentary follows her pursuit of a dream larger than her circumstances, and the search for identity that unfolds within it. Blending intimate observations with glimmers of magical realism, Fantastique follows a girl shaped by discipline and determination as she discovers who she is and what she might become.