Bisesero: A Daughter’s Story will depict the true story of the Bisesero Resistance, where a civilian resistance group, led by a respected local man known as Aminadabu Birara, with his son as his lieutenant, fought for months to survive the genocide against the Tutsi.
By Vivian Nneka Nwajiaku
German actor of Ghanaian descent, Eugene Boateng, has been cast in Bisesero: A Daughter’s Story, a Pan-African docudrama feature film about the Rwandan genocide. Boateng is known for his lead role in York-Fabian Raabe’s Borga (2021), a German-Ghanaian film for which he won the Africa Movie Academy Award (AMAA) for Best Actor in 2022.
Bisesero: A Daughter’s Story will depict the true story of the Bisesero Resistance, where a civilian resistance group, led by a respected local man known as Aminadabu Birara, with his son as his lieutenant, fought for months to survive the genocide against the Tutsi. The film will follow the POV of Birara’s daughter, Epiphanie, who fought with her family throughout the resistance.
Boateng will play Birara’s son, Nzigira, while Epiphanie will be portrayed by Ugandan actress, Tracy Kababiito, known for her lead role in Katera of the Punishment Island, the Ugandan episode of Netflix’s African Folktales Reimagined (2023), as well as her performance in Mukisa (2022), for which she won ‘Best Actress in a Feature Film’ at the 2023 Uganda Film Festival.
Other previously announced cast members include British-Nigerian actor, Wale Ojo (Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Award 2024 ‘Best Actor’ for Breath of Life (2023)) who will star as Birara, and Rwandan actress, Isabelle Kabano.
Kabano won the award for ‘Best Actress’ at the 2021 Barcelona-Sant Jordi International Film Festival for her role in Small Country: An African Childhood (2020), the film adaptation of Gaël Faye’s novel, Small Country, about a young Tutsi boy coming of age during the time of the events that lead up to the Rwandan genocide. She also appeared in Sometimes in April (2005) an American TV movie based on the genocide.
Bisesero: A Daughter’s Story will be directed by Nigerian director, Ema Edosio-Deelen (Otiti (2022); Kasala! (2018)) from a screenplay co-written with Rwandan director and screenwriter, Joël Karekezi, whose short film about reconciliation after the Rwandan genocide, The Pardon (2009), won the Golden Impala award at the Amakula Film Festival in Uganda.
Bisesero is produced by the Emmy Award-winning producer, Richard Hall, who was an executive producer on The 600: A Soldiers’ Story (2019), a documentary about a rebel battalion trapped behind enemy lines at the start of the Rwanda genocide. Karekezi is also credited as a producer, alongside Yvette Rugasaguhunga, a survivor of the genocide.
As stated by Hall, the film serves a much-needed refresher of the historical tragedy which has been underserved by cinema.
“The handful of major films about this event have been told through Western lenses, and have often fictionalised or distorted events for the sake of story that Western audiences would respond to”, he explains, “These films are also aging, having mostly come out in the early 2000’s, and thus there is an entire generation in Africa and internationally that have no acquaintance with this event through the power of cinema”.
“The film is based on true events and actual people, written and directed by African artists and producers. The POV is also unique: few if any of the major films have a Tutsi protagonist, and telling this story from the POV of a teen age girl brings a new level of humanity to the story,” he adds.
On her part, Edosio hopes that the film will serve not only as a reminder of the past but also a reference point from which lessons can be learned. “In a world that often feels divided and polarised, I hope Bisesero: A Daughter’s Story serves as a poignant reminder of the collective strength of the human spirit. The resilience of a community under siege, the power of a unified voice against adversity, and the boundless courage that emerges when everything is at stake,” she says.
According to a report by Deadline, US-based independent film packager, Slated, has partnered with Hall as an executive producer on the film, which is part of Largo.Ai’s pitch session at the 2025 European Film Market.