Coconut Head Generation

Older generations disparagingly call them “coconut heads” (or “brainless youth”) — but the students at University of Ibadan, the oldest in Nigeria, are living proof of the contrary. Shot between 2019 and 2021, Alain Kassanda’s documentary captures the words and emotions of students in weekly debates, where they hold heated discussions about power, ethnicity, feminism and gender. A prize winner at the Cinéma du Réel, this is a vibrant portrait of a generation that, in a country stricken by unemployment, corruption and censorship, grounds itself in critical thinking as a means to demanding change.