Nsenene
2021 · 8m · United Kingdom
Directed by Michelle Coomber
Genres: documentary
Tones: contemplative, mythic, tender
In Uganda, a grasshopper trapper named Ibrah narrates the nocturnal harvest of nsenene — a delicacy and a livelihood — as his community sets light-and-smoke traps through the night.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Everyone wants to aestheticize subsistence—Coomber could've made poverty into art-house wallpaper, but instead she trusts Ibrah's voice to stay grounded, which somehow makes the nocturnal mythology hit harder than expected.
A formally restrained work that situates itself in the lineage of poetic documentary—the measured pacing, the refusal to sentimentalize, the way smoke and firelight become compositional elements rather than visual comfort—marks this as work aware of its own craft heritage.
The decision to let Ibrah's narration carry the temporal architecture rather than impose a score or montage rhythm is what transforms eight minutes of nocturnal harvesting into something that feels both intimate and ceremonial.
Reviews
Nsenene is a striking piece and one of the most atmospheric docs I've seen in some time. The voiceover working perfectly to compliment the ethereal, otherworldly feel of the aesthetic, while the camera roams the Ugandan night with a floaty, dreamlike presence.