This mystical film by Mbithi Masya travels across temporalities to tell the story of a Kenyan woman who is stuck in Kati Kati (Swahili for “in-between”) a kind of purgatory, following her death.
Produced by celebrated German filmmaker Tom Tykwer, Kati, Kati, the film explores notions of the afterlife, a concept which emerged out of the director’s grief for a close friend where during their wake, Masya states that he “heard someone say that my friend was lucky because she had left all of the weight of the world behind. That got me thinking. What if that’s not true. What if some of this baggage follows us to the other side.”
The film focuses on the character of Kaleche as she encounters a series of strange residents in Kati Kati, a lodge that she has stumbled upon. The residents are marshalled by the charismatic Thoma, who provides a degree of companionship and friendship to Kaleche and serves as a guide to the layered, mysterious sercets of Kati Kati.