The River Used To Be A Man

A young German man travels through an African country. He meets an old fisherman who takes him deep into the wilderness. The next morning, he finds himself alone in the middle of an endless delta. His continuous loss of control leads him into a world far beyond his own comprehension.
Director Jan Zabeil continues in a recent strain of German films working out national dilemmas by exploring Europe’s engagement with Africa. A German actor visiting a rural waterway enters an existential fog while attempting to find meaning in ancient tradition. But the narrative here is only a gesture towards the full meaning: what can divination, memory and traditional belief mean to a man so far outside them?