Ancestor

Filmstill Ancestor

Ancestor

Dédé
Yasmine Djedje-Fisher-Azoume
International Competition Animated Film
Animated Film
UK
2025
3 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None
German premiere

Using rhythmic, ecstatic music and fragments of folk songs, Yasmine Djedje-Fisher-Azoume takes us to the mythic ancestors, goddesses, and guardians of the Bété people on the Ivory Coast – the place where the director’s ancestors came from. In her film study, inspired by traditional wooden sculptures and masks, she transforms these into many-shaped female characters through coal drawings and copper reliefs. Spinning, multi-faced and all-seeing, dancing in fluffy garments, they perform rituals and unfold an infectious choreography. The whole film pulses to this rhythm, so it comes as no surprise when one figure literally releases a stream of creative energy.
This stream is so strong that it extends into the present day – to a modern temple where living goddesses rotate in the endless flow of existence. Unlike the lifelessly arranged displays in European museums, witnesses of colonial violence, Djedje-Fisher-Azoume collects a pantheon here of what she honours and deeply moves. A temple that exists only for those who know their own origins and treat them with respect to derive from them strength for the presence and the future. The whole film, from the tip of its roots to the buds, is pervaded by this power of mystical self-knowledge.


Irina Rubina

Screenings & Tickets DOK Leipzig Logo

28.10.
#263
Passage Kinos Astoria
Teil der Kompilation
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28.10.2025
Passage Kinos Astoria
#263
Teil der Kompilation
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Calendar
29.10.
#382
UT Connewitz
Teil der Kompilation
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29.10.2025
UT Connewitz
#382
Teil der Kompilation
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30.10.
#442
CineStar 6
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30.10.2025
CineStar 6
#442
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31.10.
#514
CineStar 2
Teil der Kompilation
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31.10.2025
CineStar 2
#514
Teil der Kompilation
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Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Yasmine Djedje-Fisher-Azoume
Producer
Yasmine Djedje-Fisher-Azoume
Sound
Alex Adetiba
Sound Design
Alex Adetiba
Score
Alex Adetiba
Animation
Yasmine Djedje-Fisher-Azoume
Animation Technique
2D Digital

Contact DOK Leipzig Logo

Main Contact
Yasmine Djedje-Fisher-Azoume
opre.djedje@gmail.com
Nominated for: mephisto 97.6 Audience Award