THE LETTER is Kenya´s offi­cial sub­mis­sion to this year´s Acad­e­my Awards.
Karisa Kamango´s grand­moth­er is accused by his cousin of witch­craft on social media, what leads him to leave the city of Mom­basa for their vil­lage. There he dis­cov­ers that she is not the only pre­sumed “witch” and he dis­clos­es the social, cul­tur­al and eco­nom­ic com­plex behind those accu­sa­tions. Chris­t­ian belief is utilised for eco­nom­ic pur­pos­es, fam­i­lies and the com­mu­ni­ty itself get divid­ed and indi­vid­u­als get threat­ened by slandering.
We are fol­low­ing Karisa´s con­ver­sa­tions and dis­cov­er­ies with his stead­fast grand­moth­er, quar­relling family, the vil­lagers and Chris­t­ian groups.

Maia Lekow is a Kenyan musi­cian and film­mak­er, known promi­nent­ly as the front-woman of the band Maia & The Big Sky. She received an African Movie Acad­e­my Award for her song Uko Wapi in 2009 and was named a good­will ambas­sador for UNHCR in 2013. She wrote the orig­i­nal score for THE LETTER which is her fea­ture debut, co-direct­ed and co-pro­duced with her hus­band Christo­pher King.

Christo­pher King, Aus­tralian by birth, stud­ied visual arts at the School of Cre­ative Arts, Uni­ver­si­ty of Mel­bourne. He has worked as a film­mak­er, cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er, editor and pro­duc­er in Kenya for 13 years, having found­ed Circle & Square Pro­duc­tions with his wife Maia Lekow in Nairo­bi, 2009. He was award­ed that same year an African Movie Acad­e­my Award for edit­ing the fea­ture film FROM A WHISPER (R: Wanuri Kahiu).

Direc­tor: Christo­pher King, Maia Lekow
Camera: Christo­pher King
Edit­ing: Ricar­do Acosta, Christo­pher King
Music: Maia Lekow, Ken Mhyr
Pro­duc­er: Judy Kibinge, Peter Mudam­ba, Cyn­thia Kane
Dis­tri­b­u­tion: Trigon Film, Chris­tine Brön­ni­mann, film@trigon-film.org