Emily Atef on Why Kenya-Set Female-Empowerment Drama ‘Call Me Queen’ Is ‘More Relevant Than Ever’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Emily Atef, the acclaimed German-born French Iranian filmmaker behind 2023 Berlin Golden Bear contender “Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything,” is in post-production on her next film, the Kenya-set female-empowerment drama “Call Me Queen.” The director will be presenting the project during the Venice Gap-Financing Market, which takes place Aug. 29 – 31.
“Call Me Queen” tells the story of a fearless woman from Nairobi’s largest slum who finds unexpected kinship with an Irish journalist living in the Kenyan capital. Set in the late-’90s, as the AIDS epidemic is decimating impoverished communities, the film follows the unlikely duo as they find themselves on the frontline of a battle far bigger than themselves, taking on the pharmaceutical companies who are denying Kenyans access to life-saving treatment.
Pic is produced by Ringel Film in co-production with Les Films Pelléas and Ascent Films. The producers are Gian-Piero Ringel, who co-founded his Berlin-based shingle with director Wim Wenders in 2011, and “Anatomy of a Fall” producer David Thion. Global Constellation is repping world sales.
Speaking to Variety ahead of the Venice event, Atef recalled getting a phone call from Ringel in 2018 about an English-language, female-driven project set in Kenya that was inspired by the novel “Mercy,” written by veteran Italian foreign correspondent Lara Sontoro.
Habitually drawn to “anything that’s [set] far, far away and female-led [about] emancipation,” the director said that from the start she “very much saw the potential” in the movie being pitched by the veteran producer.
Atef knew, however, that adapting it for the screen would take some work. “The novel is really wonderfully written…but it’s very much following this white war correspondent at the end of the nineties in Nairobi,” she said. “Things have shifted so much since 2006 [when the novel was published]. These are different times.”
In order to develop the script, Atef worked with co-writers Jeannine Dominy, Josune Hahnheiser and Hawa Essuman, shifting the narrative focus away from its white protagonist, the Irish journalist Anna, to Quinta, known as “Queen”: a single mother from Rwanda, living in the slums of Nairobi, whose life is turned upside-down when she’s diagnosed with HIV.
The film follows the grassroots movement led by Queen, who comes faces to face with corporate greed as she discovers how poor Kenyans are being denied access to life-saving drugs. Together with Anna, she embarks on a journey that turns into a bold fight against disease, poverty, the pharmaceutical industry and a corrupt government.
“For me, it was very important that it’s an African emancipation story,” Atef said. “It’s a female emancipation story, but it’s also an African emancipation story. Our African ‘Queen’ is the hero. She is the one that moves her community to bring change.”
“Call Me Queen” stars Rwandan actress Eliane Umuhire, whose credits include “A Quiet Place: Day One” and the Venice-premiering French sci-fi thriller “Plan B.” In keeping with the filmmaker’s conviction that the production be African-led, Atef said her team was “98% Kenyan,” including co-writer Essuman, co-producer Api Matene and key department heads.
Atef is known for her films including the Berlin competition selections “Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything” (2023) and “3 Days in Quiberon,” which premiered in 2018, and “More Than Ever,” starring Vicky Krieps, which bowed in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard strand in 2022. She’s also directed episodes of the TV series “Jackpot” and Emmy winner “Killing Eve.”
Across her body of work, the director said, she’s been “drawn to female stories of emancipation, stories that show the existential journey of a female hero/anti-hero, in worlds outside my world.” Of the eponymous protagonist of “Call Me Queen,” Atef said: “She was born a hero, but she never knew she was.”
“She only hustled for her children. And then she realizes at a certain point in the film that she needs to change,” the director went on. “It’s not just about her; it’s about her people. If nobody’s going to do it, then she is.”
Production on “Call Me Queen” took place between Oct. 2024 and March 2025, with the film shot across January and February this year: a turbulent time in an East African nation that has been embroiled in widespread antigovernment protests dating back to last spring.
During pre-production in Nairobi in early 2024, Atef witnessed an unrelated series of demonstrations over a string of femicides that had rattled the country, with “thousands and thousands of Kenyan women — young, screaming their lungs [out] — saying ‘Stop killing us! Stop killing us!’” as they took to the streets.
“It was incredible,” Atef said, pointing to the ongoing unrest in Kenya as a sign of how “politics caught up with us” during production of her film.
It’s one of the reasons why she believes “Call Me Queen” is “more relevant than ever.”
“Even though the film is set in ’99, it’s very much a modern tale,” she said. “It’s very political. It’s very today. It’s about the power of community and the power of resistance. We have the power,” she added. “We’re being told that we don’t have the power, but we really do.”
“Call Me Queen” tells the story of a fearless woman from Nairobi’s largest slum who finds unexpected kinship with an Irish journalist living in the Kenyan capital. Set in the late-’90s, as the AIDS epidemic is decimating impoverished communities, the film follows the unlikely duo as they find themselves on the frontline of a battle far bigger than themselves, taking on the pharmaceutical companies who are denying Kenyans access to life-saving treatment.
Pic is produced by Ringel Film in co-production with Les Films Pelléas and Ascent Films. The producers are Gian-Piero Ringel, who co-founded his Berlin-based shingle with director Wim Wenders in 2011, and “Anatomy of a Fall” producer David Thion. Global Constellation is repping world sales.
Speaking to Variety ahead of the Venice event, Atef recalled getting a phone call from Ringel in 2018 about an English-language, female-driven project set in Kenya that was inspired by the novel “Mercy,” written by veteran Italian foreign correspondent Lara Sontoro.
Habitually drawn to “anything that’s [set] far, far away and female-led [about] emancipation,” the director said that from the start she “very much saw the potential” in the movie being pitched by the veteran producer.
Atef knew, however, that adapting it for the screen would take some work. “The novel is really wonderfully written…but it’s very much following this white war correspondent at the end of the nineties in Nairobi,” she said. “Things have shifted so much since 2006 [when the novel was published]. These are different times.”
In order to develop the script, Atef worked with co-writers Jeannine Dominy, Josune Hahnheiser and Hawa Essuman, shifting the narrative focus away from its white protagonist, the Irish journalist Anna, to Quinta, known as “Queen”: a single mother from Rwanda, living in the slums of Nairobi, whose life is turned upside-down when she’s diagnosed with HIV.
The film follows the grassroots movement led by Queen, who comes faces to face with corporate greed as she discovers how poor Kenyans are being denied access to life-saving drugs. Together with Anna, she embarks on a journey that turns into a bold fight against disease, poverty, the pharmaceutical industry and a corrupt government.
“For me, it was very important that it’s an African emancipation story,” Atef said. “It’s a female emancipation story, but it’s also an African emancipation story. Our African ‘Queen’ is the hero. She is the one that moves her community to bring change.”
“Call Me Queen” stars Rwandan actress Eliane Umuhire, whose credits include “A Quiet Place: Day One” and the Venice-premiering French sci-fi thriller “Plan B.” In keeping with the filmmaker’s conviction that the production be African-led, Atef said her team was “98% Kenyan,” including co-writer Essuman, co-producer Api Matene and key department heads.
Atef is known for her films including the Berlin competition selections “Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything” (2023) and “3 Days in Quiberon,” which premiered in 2018, and “More Than Ever,” starring Vicky Krieps, which bowed in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard strand in 2022. She’s also directed episodes of the TV series “Jackpot” and Emmy winner “Killing Eve.”
Across her body of work, the director said, she’s been “drawn to female stories of emancipation, stories that show the existential journey of a female hero/anti-hero, in worlds outside my world.” Of the eponymous protagonist of “Call Me Queen,” Atef said: “She was born a hero, but she never knew she was.”
“She only hustled for her children. And then she realizes at a certain point in the film that she needs to change,” the director went on. “It’s not just about her; it’s about her people. If nobody’s going to do it, then she is.”
Production on “Call Me Queen” took place between Oct. 2024 and March 2025, with the film shot across January and February this year: a turbulent time in an East African nation that has been embroiled in widespread antigovernment protests dating back to last spring.
During pre-production in Nairobi in early 2024, Atef witnessed an unrelated series of demonstrations over a string of femicides that had rattled the country, with “thousands and thousands of Kenyan women — young, screaming their lungs [out] — saying ‘Stop killing us! Stop killing us!’” as they took to the streets.
“It was incredible,” Atef said, pointing to the ongoing unrest in Kenya as a sign of how “politics caught up with us” during production of her film.
It’s one of the reasons why she believes “Call Me Queen” is “more relevant than ever.”
“Even though the film is set in ’99, it’s very much a modern tale,” she said. “It’s very political. It’s very today. It’s about the power of community and the power of resistance. We have the power,” she added. “We’re being told that we don’t have the power, but we really do.”