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Original Film Title: ZĀGBÉTO – Les Murmures du Masque
Director’s Name: Sitou Akolly
Writer’s Name: Sitou Akolly
Producer: Sitou Akolly
Country of Origin: Togo
Country of Filming : Togo
Language: English
Runtime: 11 minutes 19 seconds
Film Description:
ZĀGBÉTO is a lyrical exploration of memory, spirituality, and cultural continuity, set deep within the forests of Togo. Through the eyes of a young girl and the guardianship of a sacred ancestral figure, the film examines the fragile threshold between tradition and modernity.
When Ahuefa, whose name means “Calm Home” in Ewe, encounters the enigmatic spirit Zāgbéto, the masked protector of her village, she is drawn into a world shaped by oral history, ritual, and inherited wisdom. Narrated by griots, the storytellers entrusted with preserving the community’s collective memory, the film unfolds as a meditation on the enduring presence of the past in the present.
Infused with movement, music, and myth, ZĀGBÉTO is a poetic farewell to a guardian spirit and a quiet call to preserve what still lives within ancestral knowledge. In an increasingly fragmented world, the film invites viewers to reconsider what must be remembered and what it means to carry legacy forward.