Aymar Esse, a Beninese director, will premiere his film "My Father's Kora" at the Locarno Film Festival's Open Doors section on 9 August 2026. The film explores queer identity within traditional Senegalese Muslim culture through the story of Souleymane Everston Adowo Freudenreich, an Afro-German trans man who travels to Dakar to repair his father's kora, a 21-string West African instrument, using this act of restoration as a metaphor for his own search for belonging and acceptance.

The Benin-Switzerland-Germany co-production was made through Esse's SunRise Films alongside Swiss and German partners, developed within Steps' Generation Africa programme with backing from the Swiss Cooperation Office in Benin. Esse describes the film as a "quiet reflection" on identity, memory and healing rather than an overtly activist work, aiming to portray "a human being before a category". It will go on to screen at the Afrika Film Festival Köln in September 2026.