Between the Rains

Documenting the Turkana-Ngaremara community as they contend with prolonged drought, this visually stunning coming-of-age story follows a young, orphaned man’s journey to adapt to radically changing climate conditions in Northern Kenya. Kolei, the film’s primary subject, must grapple with personal tragedies alongside complex tribal conflicts brought on by environmental catastrophes in his pastoral region. With these mounting communal tensions and rapidly shifting culture, the threat of climate change is not just a looming notion but a present reality.

By threading interpersonal scenes with sweeping landscape cinematography, this documentary provides an intimate look at a vulnerable population fighting to bridge tradition with new circumstances. The visceral, near-consuming anxieties of the sensitive Kolei contextualize how global crisis affects individuals. Through this lens, the film lays a framework for a collective reckoning on how to strive with the ecological perils shaping the world and eventually facing us all.––Shakira Refos