Depictions of worlds beyond this one are abundant throughout human history in art, mythology, and religion. From the Egyptian Book of the Dead to Dante’s Inferno, and from the ennui-ridden Heaven sung about by Talking Heads to the simple, comforting vision offered by the Lady in the Radiator in David Lynch’s otherwise hellish Eraserhead (1977), the idea of it has stimulated human imagination across time as we seek reassurance that our lives are part of a continuum of ongoing experience. Dotted throughout this season are such imaginings, fantastical, supernatural, and comforting, beginning with Kenyan director Mbithi Masya’s Kati Kati. 

 Kaleche (Nyokabi Gethaiga) finds herself in a hospital gown in Kati Kati, a resort of sorts, with no idea as to how she got there. Her fellow residents inform her that she has died. Although her stay is comfortable, with every luxury she asks for provided, leaving the resort is impossible. Adapting to the knowledge of her own death in this purgatorial set-up, Kaleche learns that what is keeping her there is an unresolved issue from her life that she must realise and with which she must come to terms. Unusually for a film such as this, time is also a factor as what seems to be a death after death awaits those who don’t settle their burdens within a certain amount of time. 

A film that is at least in part about the difference between knowledge of our fate and the acceptance of it, it is also a film about human connection. Simple but powerful, it is a valuable addition to the canon of films on this most unknowable of subjects

Notes by Kevin Coyne.

Screening as part of our season This Mortal Coil.