Festival of Slaps

Diaspora

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12 min

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2023

Story

At a celebratory London dinner, a Nigerian mother delivers a slap that sends her adult son Ade through a rush of memories: childhood clashes, cultural expectations and the tough love that shaped him. As the past catches up with the present, he sees his own parenting differently.

“I just wanted to create a superhero film with my mum as the hero.”

Director Abdou Cissé

Did you know?

Writer-director Abdou Cissé based the film’s central incident on the day his own mother saved him from choking.

He storyboarded the film as a comic strip, drawing on anime and blockbuster action to turn an ordinary family moment into spectacle.