A feature documentary about an Afro-German trans man travelling to Dakar to repair his father's kora will have its world premiere on 9 August at the Locarno Film Festival's Open Doors section. Variety reported the premiere, which is scheduled for 10:45 local time on the festival's official programme. (Locarno Film Festival)

The film, My Father's Kora (La Kora de Mon Père), is directed by Beninese film-maker Aymar Esse and produced through his company SunRise Films. It is an 88-minute documentary in German and French, co-produced by Aline Bonvin Film Video (Switzerland), Seera Films (Germany) and 274 Studio (Switzerland) — a three-country co-production linking Benin, Switzerland and Germany. The project was developed within Steps' Generation Africa programme and received financial support from the Swiss Cooperation Office in Benin. (Variety)

The kora, a stringed instrument rooted in the Mandingue cultural world, is traditionally connected to the griots — guardians of speech, genealogy and storytelling across West Africa. Esse explained the instrument's cultural weight to Variety, framing it as central to the film's exploration of identity and inheritance.

The documentary follows Souleymane Everston Adowo Freudenreich, an Afro-German trans man, on his journey to Senegal's capital. Esse noted that Senegal remains a deeply conservative country regarding homosexuality, and that the legal and social climate for LGBTQ people there has grown harsher in recent years. (Variety)

Locarno's Open Doors section has, since 2025, focused on 42 countries across the African continent — a curated showcase designed to connect film-makers from underrepresented regions with international producers, sales agents and festival programmers. My Father's Kora sits alongside other African world premieres in the 2026 selection, including O Profeta (The Prophet), directed by Ique Langa and co-produced by Mozambique, Qatar and South Africa. (Variety; The Hollywood Reporter)

The selection was first announced in a Locarno press release in July 2026 and confirmed across trades including The Hollywood Reporter and The Film Stage. (The Film Stage)

After its Swiss premiere at Locarno, My Father's Kora travels to Germany for a screening at the Afrika Film Festival Köln in September. (Variety)

For a film about a personal quest to mend an inherited instrument, the road from Locarno to Cologne is the beginning of its public life — not the end of the story.