Zinder

Located in the heart of the Sahel, Zinder is Niger’s second largest city and home to numerous unemployed youths who are swelling the ranks of violent gangs. Director Aïcha Macky returns to her hometown, specifically the marginalised district of Kara-Kara where she was born and which is the epicentre of the violence, to explore the origins of the radicalisation that is spreading through Zinder, and the prospects for young men escaping it. With remarkable access to an otherwise closed world – and with mutual trust from the film’s protagonists – this sensitively made film documents the vicious circle of hopelessness and radicalisation, as well as the ways in which people break out of gang life. In the process, Macky reveals the survival strategies of the neglected youth of the area, and gives them a voice.