Canadian Premiere
Crocodile takes its name from Kaduna, the northern Nigerian city known as Crocodile City. It’s there that The Critics, a self-taught filmmaking collective, began making science fiction with one phone, handmade effects, and whatever their neighbourhood could supply. Co-directed by New Zealand filmmaker Pietra Brettkelly and The Critics themselves, the documentary follows the group as online experiments become a shared cinematic practice, drawing millions of views and even the attention of J.J. Abrams.
The documentary moves between the worlds The Critics invent and the lives they are trying to build. Their process is playful, but never small. Cinema becomes a way to work through grief, pressure, friendship, political awakening, and the desire to be seen beyond the limits placed around them. Winner of Best Film in Tribeca’s Viewpoints section after premiering at Berlinale, Crocodile is a coming-of-age portrait of young artists learning how to make images, community, and a future from the bare essentials.
Content Considerations: Gender or sexual discrimination, references to sexual abuse of minors, police violence
Raymond J. Yusuff, Godwin Josiah, Ronald Yusuff, Victor Josiah, Richard Yusuff
Nigeria/New Zealand
2026
In English, Pidgin English, Hausa, and Yoruba with English subtitles
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Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Sir Idris Elba, Fran Wyborn, Pietra Brettkelly, Chelsea Winstanley, Diene Petterle, Cushla Dillon, Kath Jones, Dave Long
Producer
Pietra Brettkelly, The Critics
Screenwriter
Pietra Brettkelly
Cinematography
The Critics, Rachael Yusuff, Basile Carre-Agostini, David Wills Augustin
Editor
Cushla Dillon, Chia Chi Hsu, Nicolas Chaudeurge
Original Music
Tom Third
The Critics
Collectively known as The Critics, the group began making short sci-fi films in 2012 that utilized self-taught filmmaking skills including directing, producing, cinematography, editing, and post-production. Starting out as a group of nine young brothers, sisters, and cousins living in Kaduna, Nigeria, their work continues through five core members — Raymond Yusuff, Ronald Yusuff, Richard Yusuff, Godwin Josiah, and Victor Josiah — who have now produced a total of 54 short films. Crocodile (2026) is The Critics’ first feature film, in which they also act as subjects, and the group are currently in production on their first feature drama.
Filmography: Tomorrow’s War/Ogun Ola / War is Coming narrated by Morgan Freeman (2022); Into the Woods (2022); A Tomb for the Abandoned (2023)
Photo by Clan Yujo Limited
Pietra Brettkelly
Pietra Brettkelly is an Academy Award–nominated, Sundance award-winning filmmaker who specialises in unique, intimate cinematic works that open windows into another world. Her films have premiered at Sundance, Venice Film Festival, Berlinale, Tribeca, and TIFF, and have screened on numerous international networks including BBC, Netflix, SVT (Sweden), and SBS (Australia), among others. Brettkelly is the inaugural New Zealand Arts Foundation Laureate for Documentary Filmmaking and has delivered masterclasses around the world, including at Dame Jane Campion’s film school, A Wave in the Ocean, at the esteemed director’s invitation.
Filmography: Maori Boy Genius (2012); A Flickering Truth (2015); Yellow is Forbidden (2018)
Spectrum
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Crocodile
In Crocodile, a group of young, self-taught filmmakers turn Kaduna's streets, homes, and residents into the raw materials of sci-fi cinema. This Tribeca Viewpoints winner examines filmmaking as a means to overcome a city's constraints.
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Image: © Mirabel Pictures
