Widow Champion
Directed by Zippy Kumundo
Thrown out of her home and off her land by her in-laws, a Kenyan widow becomes a fighter for women’s land rights in a deeply patriarchal community. Her story explores the delicate balance between a deep-rooted culture and a changing world.
United States | 2025 | 95 minutes | Luo, Swahili, English | Order No. W251322
SYNOPSIS
In rural Kenya, widowhood can mean exile. When a husband dies, custom dictates that his wife must be “inherited” by a male relative to remain part of the family – a ritual meant to “cleanse” her, even amid the persistent risk of HIV. Those who refuse are cast out, stripped of land, home, and belonging.
Widow Champion (dir. Zippy Kimundu) follows Rodah Nafula. After her husband’s death, Rodah defied the tradition, and she and her three children were expelled from their family compound by her in-laws. For seven years, she lived in a market stall, surviving in harsh, dehumanizing conditions. Her life turned when a local NGO, KELIN, helped her reclaim her land through an innovative community mediation program. Empowered by her victory, Rodah trained to become a “Widow Champion,” a fierce advocate guiding other women through the same struggle.
Through Rodah’s eyes, the film traces the four-year land dispute of Mary Atieno and other widows resisting dispossession. Set against the rhythms of rice planting and harvest, Widow Champion immerses us in the slow, fragile process of justice brokered by the Luo Council of Elders. Filmed in an intimate, observational style, the film captures the daily negotiations – emotional, spiritual, and legal – of women rewriting tradition from within.
PRESS
Patient, Precise and Piercing..
Kimundu wins access to remarkable scenes of traditional village mediators intervening—successfully!–in bitter family feuds.
Westerners could learn a lot from Rodah and her restorative approach to justice that restores peace in homes and her community.
A phenomenal film that looks at an African culture that discards their widows like they are nothing—with said widows having to fight tooth and nail to recover what is rightfully theirs.
With empathy, restraint, and deep insight, Widow Champion honours the pain and power of the women at its centre and brings to light conversations that urgently need to be amplified.
The humanity at the center of this film shines from its first frame, and never really fades, even in the most harrowing moments
Triumphant and uniquely human character study that is as much a machine of empathy as it is one of justice.
SCREENING HIGHLIGHTS AND AWARDS
- Hot Docs, 2025
- Tribeca, 2025
- DC/DOX, 2025
- Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), 2025
- Doc Munich, 2025
- Zanzibar Film Festival, 2025
- Hot Springs, 2025
- NBO Film Festival, 2025
ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)
Zippy Kimundu
Zippy is an award-winning Kenyan filmmaker who has been working in the global industry for nearly two decades. She holds a master's in fine arts from New York University and has worked globally in over 20 countries. Among other notable films, she co-directed a short documentary, ‘a fork, a spoon & a KNIGHT’ with renowned Director Mira Nair and was the Assistant Editor on the Disney Film ‘Queen of Katwe’. Her debut Feature Documentary that she co-produced and co-directed, ‘Our Land, Our Freedom’ had its world Premiere at IDFA in 2023 and continues to create impact across continents. Zippy is the Creative Lead at The Terrace Art Space and Residency, a film educator for teenage refugee girls at I’ll Tell You My Story and founder of Afro Films International, a creative collective working to ignite socio-political consciousness and action, across continents. (10/30)
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PROFILED
Profiled knits the stories of mothers of Black and Latino youth murdered by the NYPD into a powerful indictment of racial profiling and police brutality, and places them within a historical context of the roots of racism in the U.S. Some of the victims—Eric Garner, Michael Brown—are now familiar the world over. Others, like Shantel Davis and Kimani Gray, are remembered mostly by family and friends in their New York neighborhoods.
Ranging from the routine harassment of minority students in an affluent Brooklyn neighborhood to the killings and protests in Staten Island and Ferguson, Missouri, PROFILED bears witness to the racist violence that remains an everyday reality for Black and Latino people in this country. Moving interviews with victims’ family members are juxtaposed with sharply etched analyses by evolutionary biologist, Joseph L.Graves, Jr, (The Race Myth) and civil rights lawyer, Chauniqua D. Young, (Center for Constitutional Rights, Stop and Frisk lawsuit). PROFILED gives us a window on one of the burning issues of our time.
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Ovarian Psycos
Riding at night through streets deemed dangerous in Eastside Los Angeles, the Ovarian Psycos use their bicycles to confront the violence in their lives. At the helm of the crew is founder Xela de la X, a single mother and poet M.C. dedicated to recruiting an unapologetic, misfit crew of women of color. The film intimately chronicles Xela as she struggles to strike a balance between her activism and nine year old daughter Yoli; street artist Andi who is estranged from her family and journeys to become a leader within the crew; and bright eyed recruit Evie, who despite poverty, and the concerns of her protective Salvadoran mother, discovers a newfound confidence.
The film Ovarian Psycos rides along with the Ova’s, exploring the impact of the group’s activism, born of feminist ideals, Indigenous understanding and an urban/hood mentality, on neighborhood women and communities as they confront injustice, racism, and violence, and take back their streets one ride at a time.
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Four Wives – One Man
From Nahid Persson, the filmmaker of the award-winning Prostitution Behind the Veil, comes an intimate portrait of a polygamist family in a rural Iranian village. Persson reveals the intricacies of the relationships between the four wives, their husband, their astoundingly free-spoken mother-in-law and their numerous children. Sometimes humorous and often heartbreaking, this film follows the daily lives of the wives whose situation has turned them into both bitter rivals and co-conspirators against their abusive husband.
Persson’s camera unobtrusively and beautifully captures the range of the family’s interactions – from peaceful, pastoral scenes of a family picnic, to the temporary chaos caused by a broken faucet in the kitchen, to a furtive, whispered conversation between two wives about the latest beating. The women’s work – making bread, weaving carpets, milking and herding the sheep – provide the background to their frank conversations. Avoiding sensationalism and sentimentality, this film provides unique insights into the practice of polygamy and its effect on the women involved.
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