YOPOUGON – WAY BACK HOME

YOPOUGON – WAY BACK HOME

YOPOUGON – WAY BACK HOME

Director: Alexis Amitirigala
Documentary | Switzerland | 2023
82 min | Dolby 5.1

58th Hof International Film Festival
2024

When the excavator drives in and demolishes his recording studio on Pfingstweidstrasse in Zurich, Swiss hit producer, Dodo, decides to pack his equipment into a shipping container and travel the world with it. Four years later, the musician is chugging down the Rhine from Basel on a cargo ship, reaching South Africa, Ghana, and finally the Ivory Coast where he spent his childhood. On his journey, he wants to discover new music, write hits, and revisit his earliest memories in Yopougon that still shape him today: eating pineapples on the beach at Vridi, the mango tree in the garden, the unexpected return to Switzerland, his father’s early death.

Dodo’s journey “back to the roots” unfolds differently than planned. Dreams burst, memories collide with the reality of the present, the container ship gets stuck halfway, and the project threatens to crash due to disagreements. Big J, Dodo’s companion and co-producer, finds himself wondering more than once: What are we actually doing here – and why?

With Ankumah Kwame, Beda Ehrensperger, Dominik Jud, Horst Wegener, Jimmy James, Marco Jeger, Wiyaala Wiyaala

Cinematography Sergio Cassini, Atila Ulcay, Ebrahim Hajee, Sound Julian Joseph, Silvio Anania, Luis Garrido, Production Simone Seiterle