Swiss-Kenyan director Damien Hauser says he is eager to see how Tanzanians take 'Memory of Princess Mumbi'

Damien Hauser, the Swiss-Kenyan director of the science-fiction romance "Memory of Princess Mumbi", is waiting to see how Tanzanian audiences take the film, The Citizen of Tanzania reported in a feature published on 16 October 2026. Hauser was born in Zurich in 2001 to a Swiss father and a Kenyan mother, and made his first short films at the age of seven.

"I am very excited to see how Tanzanian audiences connect with the film," he said.

Hauser calls the film, which is set in 2093, "essentially a hangout movie set in the future". What he likes best in science-fiction cinema, he said, is "the first act, when we are introduced to the world" and one can "simply spend time getting to know the characters".

Business Daily, which described him as a 25-year-old Swiss-Kenyan filmmaker in a preview published on 13 July 2026, set out the story of the film, a mockumentary set in a resurrected African kingdom. Filmmaker Kuve (Ibrahim Joseph) travels to Umata to document the aftermath of the War of the 2070s. There he meets Mumbi (Shandra Apondi), who challenges him to make his film without artificial intelligence. Samson Waithaka plays the Prince; the Toronto International Film Festival's listing calls the plot a love triangle between a film director, an aspiring actress and a prince.

The idea began with a death. Hauser started developing the project after his brother died, The Citizen's Ramadhani Ismail reported, first turning to filmmaking to find distraction and rediscover joy. Looking back on a bad day, he said, people "often remember only what went wrong" and "overlook all the small, beautiful moments that were also there". The film is about that habit of memory.

The Citizen also gave his route to the film. He studied film at SAE between 2016 and 2020, worked in commercial production, and founded his company, Hauserfilm, in 2024.

The shoot had no script. Business Daily said Hauser filmed unscripted so the actors could improvise, and, as The Citizen reported, Kenyan actors brought authenticity, humour and local cultural references. The crew gathered about 44 hours of footage, which the team later shaped into a story. Apondi is also a co-producer, according to Bigger Motion's announcement of the East African run on 25 July 2026, in which she said: "This film was made with so much love, and I hope that love comes through on screen."

The film's own plot turns on whether a movie can be made without AI, yet Bigger Motion's announcement says Hauser used free AI tools to extend sets and build futuristic backgrounds on an independent budget. According to The Citizen, Hauser remains cautious about the ethical implications of AI and its possible effect on creative work. "I will always work with real actors and scripts written by real people," he said.

He also spoke about what African cinema can be. Imagination, romance, humour and adventure should sit alongside stories of poverty and conflict, he said, because "if African pain becomes our only cinematic output, we risk reducing ourselves to our struggles".

The film premiered at Venice Days, a section of the Venice Film Festival. Hauser describes it as the first Kenyan production selected for that section. Stephen Dalton, reviewing it for The Film Verdict on 2 September 2025, wrote that it "becomes the first Kenyan production ever to world premiere in the Venice Days sidebar", and called it a "wildly inventive retro-futuristic fairy tale" with "dazzling AI visuals".

It then screened in Toronto as a Centrepiece selection and North American premiere. The festival's listing gives the running time as 79 minutes, the language as English and the production countries as Switzerland, Kenya and Saudi Arabia. Bigger Motion's announcement adds that it also played at the BFI London Film Festival.

The East African rights went to Bigger Motion, the distribution arm of LBx Africa, according to Sinema Focus, a Kenyan film news website, on 22 June 2026. Its theatrical run was planned for Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania from August to September 2026. Bigger Motion set a homecoming screening for 7 August at Prestige Cinema on Ngong Road in Nairobi.

Bigger Motion's list of confirmed venues in Kenya named Prestige Cinema, Unseen Nairobi and Motion Cinema in Nairobi, Mega Cinema in Kisumu and Nyali Cinemax in Mombasa. In Uganda it named NuMax Cinema in Entebbe and EMT Cinemas in Kampala; in Rwanda, Cine Mayaka in Kigali; in Ethiopia, Videobet Cinema in Addis Ababa; and in Tanzania, Regalz Cinema in Arusha. Cinemas were to release showtimes a week before each screening date.

When the rights deal was announced, Hauser said he wanted "to make a film that brings joy, laughter, and warmth".