Alain Kassanda on the road, music, Africa, and “Trouble Sleep”

This week, OVID is proud to offer the exclusive streaming premiere of Alain Kassanda’s freewheeling city symphony Trouble Sleep. This film follows two young men, Fred and Akin, as they navigate the crowded roadways of Ibadan, Nigeria’s third largest city. Born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kassanda moved to France when he was eleven years old, and worked as a film programmer in Parisian cinemas for several years before becoming a filmmaker.

Before you check out this fantastic look at Nigerian city life, we invite you to watch the introduction Kassanda recorded for the film’s world premiere at Visions du Réel, where he discusses “the road” as a concept in his film, the important role music plays in the story, and “the rhetoric of chaos.” This film is very special, and we are excited to share it with you.