Born in Kinshasa, Alain Kassanda arrived in France at the age of eleven. After studies in communications, he presented film screenings in Paris before becoming the programmer of an art-house cinema for five years. He then moved to Ibadan in south-western Nigeria, where he directed Trouble Sleep, a medium-length film centred on the road and seen from the perspectives of a taxi driver and a tax collector. The film won the Golden Dove for Best Film at Dok Leipzig and a Special Mention at Visions du Réel. Colette and Justin (2022), a feature film intertwining Kassanda’s family history and the history of the decolonisation of the Congo, was selected for the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam. Coconut Head Generation, his third film, was awarded the Grand Prix at Cinéma du Réel.