‘Memory of Princess Mumbi’ Venice Review: Damien Hauser’s Sci-Fi Experiment Shines With Authentic Sincerity

Damien Hauser’s Memory of Princess Mumbi is a fever dream, to say the least. Where his previous film After the Long Rains used surreal elements to stitch together a grounded, character-driven portrait, this follow-up stretches the scale of his filmmaking even further. With the aid of AI, to some extent, in developing the sci-fi aspects of the story, the Swiss-Kenyan filmmaker not only experiments with form but also manages to infuse the project with natural charm and chemistry. It’s ambitious in scope, yet refreshingly simple when it needs to be. In many ways, this film marks a matured step forward for Hauser, one where he leans confidently on his influences while rooting them in the tenets of innate Kenyan culture, producing a work that both honours and expands upon them.

Set in the fictional African country of Umata in 2093, the story follows a love triangle between a film director, an aspiring actress and a prince. It unfolds through the dual perspectives of Hauser’s camera and the film’s main protagonist, Kuve (Abraham Joseph), both centering on Mumbi (Shandra Apondi) and their shared journey. The result is an amalgam of genres, part science fiction, part oldie romance, part documentary, that mutates and synthesises into something entirely its own.

From its opening frame, Memory of Princess Mumbi indulges in the limitless expanse of its speculative imagination, telling a story at the edge of the future. Yet when it draws closer to its characters, it collapses into the everyday ordinary gestures, intimate exchanges, and the small mundanities of familiar lives. Beneath the spectacle lies a story wrapped in the familiar tropes of romanticism, love triangles, and artistic premonitions. At times, it recalls the glossy feel of a live-action Disney remake, but as the film settles into its rhythm, it reveals something more unique: a probing look at mental health and how its manifestations ripple through those closest to us.

What carries the film without fault is its unbearable sincerity, expressed most vividly through its two leads. Joseph delivers a heartfelt, vulnerable performance as Kuve, while Apondi stuns as Mumbi. Even when the film occasionally strains against the limits of its narrative or formal ambitions, these performances ground it, keeping its emotional architecture intact. Playing off its documentary aesthetic, these characters whether by intention or improvisations, embody the spirit the film aims to capture so perfectly that the artificial world around them coalesces to simply bask behind their performances and the warmth of their humanity.

For Hauser, Memory of Princess Mumbi is a testament to the changing landscape of cinema, where AI challenges the structures of traditional filmmaking. Unencumbered by the illusions of authenticity, he doesn’t shy away from the fingerprints of artificiality in his work. This is either because its limitations couldn’t quite be hidden with his limited budget or simply because, as advertised, the AI in the film serves as an aid to bring to life an otherwise inaccessible and unscalable world. His approach is one of an ideal homage, paying earnest respect both to the local Swahili culture that comes to rapturous euphoria in a choreographed music scene and to his foreign heritage, as he welcomes us into his own side of the world.

In some of my reviews, I have long questioned the nature of foreign voices compelled to tell Kenyan stories with an authentic but often stiff performance, most recently with Nyamula, but with Memory of Princess Mumbi, I have no choice but to welcome it. There is nothing not to love in this hybrid film: eccentric with altered backgrounds, grand in its ambitions, and completely uncompromising in its unique palette. Yet it is also welcoming in its simple narrative, warmed by the voices of authentic Kenyans in front of the camera and shining with a rarefied sense of universal, childlike mysticism.

For a film that is sure to bring to the forefront the discussion of the use of AI in film productions, a debate that will undoubtedly polarize the palatability of the film as a result, I personally can’t see a better use of AI than to make such a film. I wouldn’t fault those who see the technology as the ubiquitous degradation of traditional filmmaking, but Hauser puts real human conditions at the forefront to bring to life a refreshing, joyous, inventive, fun, playful, and inspiring film that celebrates the true soul of cinema.

Memory of Princess Mumbi had its world premiere at the recently concluded Venice Film Festival’s Giornate degli Autori section, the first Kenyan feature to achieve such a feat. It’s now screening at the ongoing Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) which runs from 4 – 14 September, before heading to BFI London Film Festival in October. For its Kenyan premiere, Memory of Princess Mumbi screened at the 2025 NBO Film Festival that ran from 16-26 October.

EDITOR’S NOTE: All reporting, interviews, and reviews on Sinema Focus are protected under international copyright law and the Kenya Copyright Act, 2001. No part of this publication may be reproduced, rewritten, republished, or redistributed in any form by media outlets without prior written consent. For reprint or syndication inquiries, contact editorial@sinemafocus.com.

©️ 2026 Sinema Focus / African Film Press. All rights reserved.