Aymar Esse, Director of Open Doors World Premiere ‘My Father’s Kora,’ Discusses Challenges of Queer Cinema in Senegal

The film profiles an Afro-German trans man who travels from Berlin to Dakar to repair his father’s kora, a traditional 21-string West African musical instrument

By Roberto Prieto

Roberto Prieto

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“My Father’s Kora” (“La Kora de Mon Père”), a Benin-Switzerland-Germany production, will have its world premiere Aug. 9 at Locarno’s Open Doors section, which has focused on 42 countries of the African continent since 2025.

The film follows Souleymane Everston Adowo Freudenreich, an Afro-German trans man who travels to Dakar, Senegal, to repair his father’s kora. Classified as a harp or lute, repair of the kora serves as a metaphor for Souleymane’s search for identity, belonging and acceptance within a traditional Muslim culture.

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