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BUFIS 

Mahad Ahmed & Vincenzo Cavallo
Kenya/ Germany 2023 | Original Version with English Subtitles I 105 min   

THU 14 NOV
20:30 fsk

Nairobi’s Eastleigh district is home to many exiled Somalis who have fled the civil war in their home country. Once a year, when the Kenyan US embassy opens its doors for the visa lottery, Assad’s time has come: the gifted storyteller puts together fake families from the scattered refugees, develops fictitious family stories and coaches his clients until their stories are truly credible. Based on true events, BUFIS is a humorous and touching story about lifelong dreams.

MAHAD AHMED is a Kenyan actor, director, screenwriter and founder of the Nairobi-based collective Somali React. He earned his certificate in film and television production at the prestigious African Digital Media Institute and later worked as a director and editor for RTN TV. Ahmed played the lead role of Momo in WAZI?FM. The film was awarded the Golden Dhow at the ZIFF Awards 2015, among others. He was also part of the cast of the Oscar-nominated short film WATU WOTE and worked as a camera assistant on the set of AYAANLE and THERE IS NOTHING TO DO as an assistant director with the famous Nairobi-based collective The Nest under the direction of acclaimed director Jim Chuchu.

VINCENZO CAVALLO is a writer, director, producer and researcher based in Kenya since 2007. He participated in Berlinale Talents 2018 and Berlinale Talent Co-Production Market Lab 2019, where he also won the VFF Award with BUFIS. His first interactive film AFRICAN SPACE MAKERS was in the official competition of XR Venice 2020 and screened at AFRIKAMERA in 2023. His first feature film WAZI?FM, a Somali-Kenyan thriller, won three awards at the 2015 Zanzibar Film Festival, including the Golden Dhow. Cavallo wrote, directed and co-produced a twelve-part television series about Afro-Colombian music, won the prize for best comedy at the Berlin Web Festival and the prize for best director at the Roma Web Festival with a web series about West African migrants in southern Italy.