Skip to main content
The Return film image; group of people standing side by side

The Return

Enchukunoto

VIFF Short Forum

Malih returns to her community as the first Maasai filmmaker—both an insider and an outsider, a woman amongst men—so that she may carry on the sacred tradition of storytelling.

 

Supported by

    

Community Partner

Director
Featuring

Dukuya Lekominga, Nderi Lolinge, Patrick Ole Saikong, Reuben Legei, Clinto Lekominga, Rupes Caro

Credits
Country of Origin

Kenya

Year

2024

Language

In Maasai, Samburu and English with English subtitles

Film Contact
Links
18+
16 min
Award Winners Black Cinema Documentary Shorts Women Directors
Nia Tero, Upstander Project Production

Credits & Director

Executive Producer

Tracy Rector

Producer

Kavita Pillay, Tracy Rector, Adam Mazo, Taylor Hensel

Screenwriter

Laissa Malih, Kavita Pillay

Cinematography

Franklyne Mudulia Manono

Editor

Sauli Pillay

Original Music

Soundstripe, Moments

Laissa Malih headshot; The Return director

Laissa Malih

Laissa Malih is the first female Maasai filmmaker. Her work focuses on documenting, linking, amplifying, and scaling up youth and women’s voices across diverse Indigenous cultures in Kenya and the world. Her 2020 documentary, River of Brown Waters (2020), looks at the significance of the Ewaso Ng’iro, a river that serves as a lifeline for pastoralist communities surrounding Mount Kenya. In addition to film work, Malih has participated in international conferences and fellowships focused on climate adaptation and cultural legacy.

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

The Missouri Breaks

Dir. Arthur Penn
126 min

This exuberant, wild and wooly western from Arthur Penn features a brazenly transgressive performance from Marlon Brando, while Jack Nicholson underplays masterfully as the cattle rustler he's been hired to eliminate.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Certain Women

Dir. Kelly Reichardt
107 min

Spare, incisive portraits of four Montana women (Laura Dern, Michelle Williams, Kristen Stewart and Lily Gladstone) brushing up against the everyday wears and tears of difficult men, their own circumstances, and the desire for something better.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Samia

Dir. Yasemin Şamdereli
102 min

Despite growing up in Mogadishu, Somalia, during the civil war, Samia Yusuf Omar persists in her dream of becoming an Olympic athlete and competes in Beijing, 2008 -- with London, 2012 next on her agenda. Based on a true story.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Little Big Man

Dir. Arthur Penn
139 min

Dustin Hoffman ages a century in Arthur Penn's epic picaresque anti-western, the tall tale of 121-year-old Jack Crabb, a white man rescued and raised by the Cheyenne, a one-time snake-oil salesman, gunslinger, and mule skinner under General George Custer.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Sudan, Remember Us

Dir. Hind Meddeb
78 min

A portrait of young artists and activists, Meddeb's doc charts events in Khartoum between 2019 -- in the immediate wake of the revolution that deposed dictator Omar al-Bashir -- and the mood four years later, when the country has been torn apart by civil war.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Toni Erdmann

Dir. Maren Ade
162 min

This hilarious and acerbic comedy follows a retiree as he stages a series of outrageous pranks to disrupt his executive daughter's latest business deal.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema