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Ancestral Visions of the Future

Berlinale Special 2025
© Agat Films - Mokoari Street Media - 2025
Ancestral Visions of the Future is a deeply personal work from filmmaker Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese. With fragmented narratives and mythical images, he crafts a haunting reflection on dislocation and belonging. Enter: the Puppeteer, a man who tends herbs that extend people’s lifespans to grant humanity time for redemption. And the Market Seller, a mother who keeps the language of dreams alive in a city that has forgotten how to speak it. The film also explores Mosese’s childhood and his relentless dance to evade death and wrest meaning from loss. From the dusty gravel roads where he played with toy wire cars as a seven-year-old to the dispassionate streets of exile where he dissolved into anonymity, Mosese confronts the moments that shattered and shaped him. His memories intertwine with the presence of his mother, a figure of vigilance and defiance. But Ancestral Visions of the Future is more than the story of one man’s exile – it is also an elegy for a city and a people caught between the weight of memory and the inevitability of loss. And it is a poetic ode to cinema.
by Lemohang Mosese (Director, Screenplay)
with Siphiwe Nzima, Sobo Bernard, Mochesane Kotsoane, Rehauhetsoe Kotsoane France / Lesotho / Germany / Qatar / Saudi Arabia 2025 English 90' Colour World premiere | Documentary form

With

  • Siphiwe Nzima (Manthabiseng)
  • Sobo Bernard (Herbalist / Puppeteer)
  • Mochesane Kotsoane (Old man)
  • Rehauhetsoe Kotsoane (Child)

Crew

Director Lemohang Mosese
Screenplay Lemohang Mosese
Cinematography Lemohang Mosese, Phillip Leteka
Editing Andrès Hilarion Madariaga
Music Diego Noguera
Sound Design Diego Noguera
Producers Marie Balducchi, Lemohang Mosese
Executive Producer Marie Balducchi
Co-Producers Laura Kloeckner, Anan Fries

Produced by

Agat Films

Mokoari Street

SEERA Films

Photos

Lemohang Mosese

© Ulises Gutierrez

The Berlin-based visual artist and self-taught filmmaker was born in Hlotse, Lesotho. His visual essay Mother, I Am Suffocating, This Is My Last Film About You premiered in the Forum at the Berlinale in 2019 and has been presented at other high-profile festivals and institutions such as MoMA. The following year, he was a member of the Berlinale Shorts jury. His feature film This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection won the Visionary Filmmaking Jury Award at Sundance and more than 30 other awards. His video installations, including “Sculpting God” and “New God”, have been exhibited around the world.

Filmography

2014 Mosonngoa (Mocked One); short film 2015 Behemoth or the Game of God; short documentary 2019 Mother, I Am Suffocating. This Is My Last Film About You; documentary · This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection 2025 Ancestral Visions of the Future; documentary

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2025