Project Detail

Atomu

Synopsis

Go inside the cyclical centre of a Kikuyu tribal myth from Kenya, where man may become woman and woman may become man. Through virtual reality, dance, and music, a sacred space is created to explore many versions of yourself.
Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2020 - New Frontier Exhibitions

Details

Year
2020
Type of project
Shorts
Running time
c. 12 min
Format
VR
Director
Shariffa Ali, Yetunde Dada/ Lead Artists: Shariffa Ali, Yetunde Dada
Producer
Antoine Cayrol, Rafael Pavon, Corentin Lambot, Richard Perrin, Sally Blake
Executive Producer
Antoine Cayrol, Arnaud Colinart, Adam Smith, Steve Jelley, Annick Jakobowicz, Opeyemi Olukemi
Screenwriter
Banna Desta
Composer
Andrew Orkin
Principal cast
Ira Mandela Siobhan, Sonya Cullingford
Associate Producers
Pierre Zandrowicz, Alethea Avrami, Fred Volhuer, Toby Coffey, Ingrid Koepp
Lead Animator
Clement Castanier
Animator
Gillian Best, Martin Lanzinger
Technical Animator
Simon Goodchild

Production Status

Production Company

An AtlasV, Dimension Studio, France Television, POV production. With the participation of Sundance Institute, CNC, Electric South, National Theatre, Digital Lab Africa

Atlas V

Antoine Cayrol

Page updates

This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.

See also

You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.

İki Laborantın Yorgun Saatleri (The Weary Hours of Two Lab Assistants) İki Laborantın Yorgun Saatleri (The Weary Hours of Two Lab Assistants)

Director: Burak Çevik

Year: 2026

At midnight, two lab assistants study an unknown substance using machines and procedures that are unclear to us. They pursue knowledge through the strict logic of the laboratory. As exhaustion settles in, one of the assistants brews Turkish coffee for the other, and the night shifts. The process becomes a fortune-telling, and the scientific gaze gives way to intuition. Moving from analysis to foresight, the two women imagine another method of knowing, a space where rational inquiry and intuitive perception coexist. Official Selection Berlin International Film Festival 2026 - Forum Expanded - World premiere

MUSCLE MUSCLE

Director: Karimah Ashadu

Year: 2025

With no single protagonist or linear narrative, the film immerses the viewer in a spectacle of strength through an intimate portrait of bodybuilders in the slums of Lagos. Inflated muscles, bulging veins and luminous skin glistening with sweat fill the screen. Shot almost entirely in close-ups, the camera hovers so near its subjects, moving softly like breath on skin, that at times figures become blurred, abstracted forms. Karimah Ashadu’s slow, measured pans across backs, chests and arms meditate on visibility, drawing attention to the embodiment and representation of the Black male body without rendering it singular or fixed. The metallic clang of barbells is punctuated with guttural sounds of exertion set against the ambience of the streets. Breath and muscle move in syncopated sonic choreography, and the men’s commitment to the ritual of maintaining the body is evident. Official Selection Berlin International Film Festival 2026 - Forum Expanded - International Premiere

Five Leaves Left Five Leaves Left

Director: Alex Crowton

Year: 2026

In the summer of 1997, two 19 year old lovers set out from the Birmingham suburbs in a classic car. Their destination: the grave of Nick Drake, whose music had become a shared language between them and a comfort for their unacknowledged pain. This journey, captured in memory and reimagined on screen, becomes a meditation on youth, longing, and the quiet power of music to shape identity and connection where deeply hidden vulnerabilities can be shared. Interwoven with this personal narrative are intimate audio interviews with artists from different generations who reflect on how Drake’s music shaped their lives and creative paths. Their insights echo and deepen the emotional terrain of the road trip, creating a layered portrait of influence, absence, and resonance.