Over-a-Decade-in-the-Making Kenyan Doc ‘Truck Mama’ to Open Encounters 2026 as ‘Kikuyu Land’ Sets African Premiere

Kenyan documentary feature Truck Mama has been selected as the opening film at the 28th edition of the Encounters South African International Documentary Festival running from 4 to 14 June 2026 in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Directed by Zippy Nyaruri, Truck Mama follows a single mother and truck driver navigating dangerous roads to provide for her family. In a male-dominated industry, she balances long hauls, calls home and daily challenges.

More than a decade in the making, the film began its journey in 2011 and was supported through a series of labs, film funds and markets including the Durban Film Mart, Docubox, IDFA Forum, Hot Docs-Blue Ice Docs Fund and the Red Sea Film Foundation.

Truck Mama had its world premiere at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in November 2025, and soon after screened in competition at the Red Sea International Film Festival 2025 alongside fifteen feature films from Africa, Asia and the Arab world.

Meanwhile, Kikuyu Land, the Kenyan documentary which premiered at Sundance in January, will have its African premiere at Encounters.

Directed by Bea Wangondu and Andrew H. Brown, Kikuyu Land follows a Nairobi-based journalist whose investigation into a land dispute involving the local government and a powerful multinational corporation unravels buried wounds and family secrets.

In his review, Sinema Focus critic Kelvin Kariuki described the film as a “profound and poignant meditation on land and its people.”

“It’s easy to get depressed at the state of the world at the moment,” says festival director Mandisa Zitha. “But this year’s lineup offers both inspiring examples of resistance and a reminder that, as Tutu said, ‘the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’”

See the full lineup of documentaries screening at the Encounters South African International Documentary Festival 2026 below.

African documentaries

• Truck Mama (Kenya | South Africa | Saudi Arabia | Netherlands) – Director(s): Zippy Nyaruri
• TUTU (South Africa | United States | United Kingdom) – Director(s): Sam Pollard
• Notes from the Underground (South Africa) – Director(s): Adrian Van Wyk & Chris Kets
• Kikuyu Land (Kenya) – Director(s): Bea Wangondu, Andrew H. Brown
• My Father and Qaddafi (Libya | United States) – Director(s): Jihan
• Fantastique (Guinea | Belgium | France | Netherlands) – Director(s): Marjolijn Prins
• Marxism & Period Pains (South Africa)– Director(s): Mmabatho Montsho
• The Hour After Midnight (South Africa) – Director(s): Pat van Heerden & Edwin Wes
• My Father’s Son (South Africa) – Director(s): Elan Gamaker
• The Woman Who Poked the Leopard (Uganda | Germany) – Director(s): Patience Nitumwesiga
• The Eyes of Ghana (Ghana | United States | United Kingdom) – Director(s): Ben Proudfoot
• Mama-Demic (South Africa) – Director(s): Nicole Schafer
• A Little Blackman from the Congo (South Africa | Spain) – Director(s): Tshililo waha Muzilla
• Amilcar (Cape Verde | Spain | Portugal) – Director(s): Miguel Eek
• Tristan Forever (Tristan da Cunha | Switzerland) – Director(s): Tobias Nölle, Loran Bonnardot

International documentaries

• Nuisance Bear (United States | Canada) – Director(s): Gabriela Osio Vanden & Jack Weisman
• American Doctor (United States | Palestine | Malaysia | Qatar | Denmark | Japan) –Director(s): Poh Si Teng
• Everybody to Kenmure Street (United Kingdom) – Director(s): Felipe Bustos Sierra
• Elon Musk Unveiled – The Tesla Experiment (Germany) – Director(s): Andreas Pichler
• Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie (United States) – Director(s): Alex Gibney
• Amadou & Mariam – The Blind Couple From Mali (Canada) – Director(s):
  Ryan Marley
• Life After Siham (Egypt | France) – Director(s): Namir Abdel Messeeh
• Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror (United States) – Director(s): Linus O’Brien
• All About the Money (Ireland) – Director(s): Sinéad O’Shea
• A War on Women (Iran | Italy) – Director(s): Raha Shirazi
• Elephants & Squirrels (Sri Lanka | Switzerland) – Director(s): Gregor Brandli

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