Kikuyu Land
Bea Wangondu & Andrew H. Brown / United States & Kenya / 2026 / International Premiere / 95 min
A Kenyan journalist returns to her ancestral home to cover a legal battle between multinational corporations and the country's indigenous people, but must confront her own family's role.
For the Kenyan Kikuyu people, land and soil are synonymous with identity. But during British colonialism, land was stolen from the indigenous communities, who now have to work under the harsh conditions imposed by large international companies on the very same fields that belonged to their ancestors. But there are also people who are stubbornly fighting for justice and to get the land back into the hands of the indigenous people.
Journalist Bea Wangondu (who co-directed the film) travels from Nairobi to her ancestors’ lush highlands to uncover their legal and political struggle. But as the layers are revealed and a neocolonialist system emerges, a family secret is also revealed, causing the journalist’s own life story to crumble beneath her.
‘Kikuyu Land’ is a nuanced portrait of the farm workers, the legal battle against exploitation, the dreams that exist beyond the fields, Kenya’s political chaos, and, not least, Bea Wangondu’s own painful family secrets.