directed by: Philippe Lacôte, year: 2020
actors: Bakary Koné, Ismaël Lô

Night of the Kings (La Nuit des Rois) plunges viewers into a brutal, intimate prison tale in Abidjan. Inside MACA, a teenage inmate nicknamed Roman is chosen to entertain by telling stories to a volatile crowd of convicts as the night unfolds. The line between myth and reality blurs, and a dangerous game of storytelling, loyalty, and survival tests courage and memory. Lacôte crafts a luminous, kinetic fable about freedom inside confinement. Its sonic pulse, intimate close-ups, and hypnotic pacing linger after the credits, inviting reflection on resilience and storytelling as acts of resistance.

Street Life, Drama, Prison Drama, African Cinema, Ivory Coast Film, Magical Realism, Storytelling, Survival