Judy Kibinge Returns to Directing After More Than a Decade With Supernatural Folk Thriller ‘Goat’

In 2013, Something Necessary, a Kenyan feature that follows the aftermath of the post-election violence, premiered. The film was directed by Judy Kibinge. That same year, Kibinge founded Docubox, East Africa’s first independent film fund, which has since supported over 100 films, including feature documentaries, documentary shorts, and short fiction films, while also upskilling filmmakers. Some notable films include Zippy Kimundu’s Our Land, Our Freedom, South Sudan’s No Simple Way Home, Maia Lekow and Christopher King’s How to Build a Library, The Battle for Laikipia and Softie.

Now, more than a decade later, Kibinge returns to directing (and writing) with Goat, a supernatural folk thriller that explores spirituality, love and cultural memory.

The official synopsis reads: City lovebirds Benjamin and Suki journey to a remote goat farm where Suki discovers she’s been deceived—this isn’t the romantic getaway she expected. Watched over by a towering Mugumo tree and a strange assortment of farmyard residents, vegetarian Suki is horrified to witness the brutal slaughter of a goat, triggering visions of an ancestral debt and a race to escape what her bloodline owes.

The 27-minute short is led by Sheila Munyiva (Country Queen) and Brian Ogola (Lusala) as the couple Suki and Benja (Benjamin), with Peter Mudamba (Country Queen), Joseph Gachanja (Second Family), and twins Natasha Wangari and Sasha Wambui also starring.

The idea for the film grew out of a reckoning with Kenya’s religion and spirituality. “Kenya is a country where Christianity and Islam have been accepted as the nation’s primary spiritual truth, but I find myself wondering about our spiritual beliefs before colonialism. Goat emerged from this questioning,” Kibinge says.

She describes the project as her “first truly personal film in over a decade” after spending more than 10 years at Docubox supporting filmmakers across East Africa “[This film is] made after 13 years of building a remarkable film fund and community for independent African filmmakers, while my own creative voice lay dormant,” she says.

Goat is a homecoming for her not just creatively, but also personally. It’s a story rooted in her family history yet expands into a larger meditation on identity and culture against the enduring consequences of colonialism. It is this inward reflection that the film draws its main tension from, Kibinge says. “The horror comes not from external monsters, but from the realisation that in rejecting our past, we may have rejected essential parts of ourselves.”

Beyond its horror elements, Goat is also a love story between Suki and Benja, which Kibinge says drives the emotional core of the story, grounding the spiritual exploration in human connection and sacrifice.

For producer Habiba Gicheru, Goat is a blend of the contemporary with Kikuyu folklore and tradition without apology, and is part of her journey of reclaiming our stories. “It’s proof that we can tell our stories through our own imaginations and realities, experimenting boldly between the contemporary and the historical,” she says. “What excites me most is that we don’t need to be afraid of excavating our histories and speaking our truths.”

Goat premieres in competition at Woodstock Film Festival in New York, which runs from 15 – 19 October 2025.

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