Coconut Head Generation, by Alain Kassada

Coconut Head Generation, by Alain Kassada. Nigeria, France, 2023. 89 min.

“I feel close to this director’s approach and the astuteness with which he observes a particular section of African youth, capturing their mood. A film of incredible vitality, which seems to me to be looking at the right place at the right time, questioning the role of cinema in our lives and struggles.” Mati Diop. Every Thursday night at the University of Ibadan, a large city in south-western Nigeria, a group of students turn an amphitheatre into a film club where they watch and discuss films. These young people expound their critical views on decolonisation, feminist struggles, LGBT struggles, ethnic minorities, student rights and elections. Coconut Head Generation – “coconut head” being the derogatory name that is given to a stubborn and stupid young person – thus takes on a whole new meaning, as students turn the slur upside down to reclaim their freedom of thought.

Born in Kinshasa, Alain Kassanda left the Democratic Republic of Congo for France at the age of eleven. He studied communication, and organised screenings in various Parisian cinemas. For five years he was responsible for programming at an art-house cinema in the suburbs of Paris, before moving to Ibadan, in south-western Nigeria, from 2015 to 2019. There he directed the medium-length film Trouble Sleep, which received the Golden Dove for best film at the 2020 DOK Leipzig festival and the Special Jury Award at the Visions du Réel festival. This was followed by Colette and Justin, a feature-length film intertwining his family history and the history of the decolonisation of the Congo, which competed in the international section at IDFA in 2022. Coconut Head Generation is Kassanda’s third film.