‘La Maison du vent’ Brings Cameroon Back to Venice Competition After 51 Years

Fifty-one years after Dikongué-Pipa’s Muna Moto was presented at the Venice Film Festival, a film rooted in Cameroon has returned to the festival’s official selection. La Maison du vent, the first feature by Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu, is competing in the Orizzonti section of the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, held from September 2 to 12, 2026, on the Lido.

The 102-minute film had its first official public screening on September 4 at the Sala Darsena. Orizzonti is one of Venice’s official competitive sections, separate from Venezia 83, whose films compete for awards including the Golden Lion.

Shot in Yaoundé and surrounding areas, La Maison du vent tells the story of Josette, a mother whose children have moved abroad. Left alone in the Cameroonian capital, she encourages them to build houses back home, hoping that their property investments will preserve their connection to Cameroon and eventually bring them back.

Her daily life changes when Sarah, a young woman from her neighborhood, enters her life and the two gradually develop a close relationship. Sarah’s presence fills part of the void left by Josette’s children. But when Sarah’s French partner, Adrien, arrives in Yaoundé intending to marry her, Josette is confronted with the prospect of another departure.

The film shifts the usual perspective on migration. Rather than following those who leave Cameroon for Europe, it focuses on those who remain and must live with the distance. Parents’ loneliness, houses built in anticipation of a return and family relationships maintained across borders are central to a story drawn directly from the director’s own experience.

Kouemo Yanghu acknowledges that autobiographical connection in his official statement published by the Biennale. Josette was inspired by his mother, whose six children, like those of the character, left Cameroon to live abroad, mainly in Europe. After their departure, she remained alone in the family’s large house in Yaoundé, hoping they would one day return.

That personal origin also gives the house a role beyond that of a setting. It represents the relationship some diaspora families maintain with their country of origin. For Josette, building a home keeps alive the possibility of return even as her children establish their lives elsewhere.

A Journey Through Fespaco

Born in Yaoundé in 1976, Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu began his film training through courses organized by the Écrans Noirs association before continuing his studies at the École supérieure d’audiovisuel in Toulouse. He later directed several short films.

Among them, Waramutsého!, which examines the repercussions of the Rwandan genocide through two students living together in France, earned him the Bronze Foal for short film at Fespaco in 2009, along with several awards at international festivals. La Maison du vent marks his first feature-length film.

The project had already passed through Venice before its 2026 selection. In 2025, while still in post-production, it was one of eight films selected for Final Cut in Venice, a Venice Production Bridge program that supports the completion of films from regions including Africa. The project received several forms of technical support for post-production.

Its financing and production also reflect the project’s international path. The Biennale lists six countries for the film: Cameroon, France, Belgium, Benin, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

The production brings together Cameroon’s Horizons d’Afrique, France’s La Mansarde Cinéma, Belgium’s Steel Fish Pictures and Benin’s Merveilles Production, with support from the Red Sea Fund and the Doha Film Institute. Celluloid Dreams handles international sales, while Michel Duprez and Cameroonian musician Blick Bassy composed the music.

The ‘Muna Moto’ Precedent

The presence of La Maison du vent at Venice inevitably recalls Muna Moto. Dikongué-Pipa’s first feature was presented at the festival in 1975. It tells the story of Ngando and Ndomé, a couple whose plans to marry are thwarted by the young man’s inability to provide the required bride price and by the rules governing their community.

The film later continued its run at major African festivals. In 1976, Muna Moto won the Étalon de Yennenga, Fespaco’s top prize, as well as the Silver Tanit at the Carthage Film Festival. Restored through Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project, it is now among the best-documented Cameroonian works in African cinema heritage.

The two films address different subjects. Muna Moto explored the relationship between love, bride price, family structures and social norms. La Maison du vent examines another transformation of the Cameroonian family: the long-term settlement of family members abroad.

In both films, family provides a lens through which broader social changes are explored. In 2026, it is this Yaoundé-set story, starring Josette Kwanya and Moudjeu Pouadeu among others, that brings Cameroon back to competition at Venice through the Orizzonti section.

P.N.N