The Recce

Forum Expanded 2026

In 1904, European leaders of the Zionist Organisation secretly surveyed the Ugandan highlands as a potential “New Promised Land” for the Jewish people. Supported discreetly by British colonial administrators, who described East Africa as a barren and blank imperial canvas and were eager to rid England of its Jewish population, one Jewish delegate began mapping the terrain, climate and life in Uganda towards a new Jewish settlement. What occurred on that mountain that led the explorer to vow never to return remains unknown. Drawing on present-day film location scouting and an email exchange with an Ugandan scout, The Recce meditates on cinema’s ties to land and its entanglement with (neo)colonial imagination. Through the recce, land becomes vital both to filmmaking and state-building. It is sought after, colonised and constantly reimagined as elsewhere. At the core of the recce lies a potentially violent act: the erasure of one place in creating another. The recce, as this test is often called, is seldom regarded as a film, but embodies this very violence and the ongoing shadow of coloniality in its form.

by Daniel Mann (Director) United Kingdom / Germany 2026 English 15' Colour World premiere | Documentary form

Crew

Director	Daniel Mann
Cinematography	Uganda Fixers
Editing	Daniel Mann
Producer	Daniel Mann

Produced by

Daniel Mann

London, United Kingdom

Photos

Daniel Mann

Daniel Mann is a London-based filmmaker and writer. His work often interrogates the material politics of land, particularly in the contexts of colonialism and nationalism. His films have been screened at festivals, including the Berlinale, IFFR, Visions du Réel, Cinema du Réel, DocLisboa and the ICA in London. His recent film, Under a Blue Sun, received the International Jury Prize at Documenta Madrid. Mann is also the author of the books “Occupying Habits” and the forthcoming “Hot Location: Cinema on the Planetary Frontier”, and a lecturer in film studies at King’s College London.

Filmography

2009 Complex 2011 Future Diaries 2015 The Birdman 2018 Motza El Hayam (Low Tide) 2019 Salarium 2021 The Magic Mountain 2024 Mitahat Le Shemesh Khula (Under a Blue Sun) 2026 The Recce; Forum Expanded 2026