In the year 2093, a filmmaker named Kuve arrives in the fictional African nation of Umata, where generative AI has been used to digitally resurrect the continent’s ancient kingdoms. There, he meets Princess Mumbi, a magnetic young woman torn between royal duty and her dream of becoming an actress. As their encounter unfolds, Kuve is drawn into a layered triangle of memory, mythology, and authorship—one that quietly interrogates the role of technology in shaping historical narratives. What does it mean to revive the past with tools that never knew it?
Directed by Swiss-Kenyan filmmaker Damien Hauser, Memory of Princess Mumbi is a daringly self-reflexive debut that blends mockumentary, romantic drama, and political satire into a low-budget speculative fable. Entirely self-produced and built with digital worldbuilding tools, the film is less interested in prediction than in provocation. At its heart is a question that lingers long after the credits: Can storytelling remain sovereign in an age of artificial memory, or has the archive already been rewritten?
Presented by
Community Partner
Shandra Apondi, Ibraham Joseph, Samson Waithaka, Michael Garama, Damien Hauser, Newton Ronnoh
Kenya/Switzerland
2025
English
At International Village
At Fifth Avenue
Book Tickets
Credits & Director
Producer
Damien Hauser
Screenwriter
Damien Hauser
Cinematography
Damien Hauser
Editor
Damien Hauser
Production Design
Damien Hauser
Original Music
Damien Hauser
Damien Hauser
Filmography: Blind Love (2021); Theo: Eine Konversation Mit Der Ehrlichkeit (2022); After the Long Rains (2024)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Late Fame
Based on a novella by Arthur Schnitzler (Eyes Wide Shut) this is a sly, poignant comedy about vanity and art from director Kent Jones, starring Willem Dafoe as a mailman belatedly acclaimed for a book of poetry he wrote in his youth.
Memory of Princess Mumbi
In 2093, a filmmaker arrives in the African village of Umata, where he meets Princess Mumbi, a woman torn between love, legacy, and the future of storytelling. It's a fabulous genre-blending fable about memory, invention and cinematic resistance.
Lessons of Darkness
Werner Herzog's unforgettable documentary reveals the unfolding disaster of the Kuwaitian oil fields in flames in 1991 as a sweeping inferno of mesmerizing power.
Beau Travail
Inspired by Herman Melville's Billy Budd, Claire Denis' transfixing Beau Travail is set in East Africa. Sgt Galoup (Denis Lavant) reflects on his time in the French Foreign Legion, and the impact of the handsome Sentain (Gregoire Colin).
But I'm a Cheerleader
Megan (Natasha Lyonne) is the perfect All-American Girl, or so she thinks. That is until she’s shipped off to conversion therapy. This pitch black comedy is wrapped in a saccharine bow, featuring the icon herself, RuPaul, as a conversion counsellor.