Allah is not obliged

Birahima, a young Guinean orphan around ten years old, must leave his village and try to cross the border to find an aunt who is said to be living in Liberia. The boy follows Yacouba, a smooth-talking wanderer who poses as his guide. But along the way, an encounter with child soldiers turns Birahima’s fate upside down. An unwilling recruit, what awaits him on the path of war?

The adaptation of Allah Is Not Obliged began with a meeting. Producer Sébastien Onomo had long dreamed of bringing Ahmadou Kourouma’s novel to the screen as an animated feature film. While we were working together on The Siren by Sepideh Farsi, he introduced me to the book, which I had never read before. Discovering it was a powerful experience.

Birahima’s voice struck me immediately: insolent, ironic, and free. He recounts the war with the frankness of a child who refuses false pretenses. His voice reminded me of the stories I heard as a teenager when visiting my family in Beirut—stories of war and survival often told with a brutal sense of humor. This distance between tragedy and the way it is narrated became the heart of the project.

Very quickly, one conviction became clear: to adapt this novel, we had to go beyond the book. Thanks to Mohamed Tarawalley, a former Sierra Leonean general now living in Monrovia, I was able to meet former fighters and travel through the places where the story unfolds. These encounters deeply nourished the film and grounded the project in a human and historical reality.

The voices then became the starting point for the animation. In Abidjan, with Alma Production, we assembled a cast rooted in this reality. The young rapper SK07 gives voice to Birahima, alongside Missa Ndry, Salomé Kompaoré and Grâce Cisse Tassini, while Thomas Ngijol brings Yacouba to life.

Directed by Zaven Najjar

Written by Zaven Najjar and Karine Winczura

Animated feature film — 80 minutes

Based on the novel by Ahmadou Kourouma, winner of the Prix Renaudot and the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens (2000)

Voice cast: SK07, Thomas N’Gijol, Marc Zinga, Annabelle Lengronne and Naky Sy Savané

Produced by Special Touch Studios, Creative Touch Studios, Paul Thiltges Distribution, Need Production, Lunamine and Yzanakio

Co-produced with the Red Sea Film Festival Foundation, Pictanovo, Canal+ Afrique, Proximus, Société Radio-Canada, Gkids and RTBF (Belgian Television)

Distributed by BAC Films, Paul Thiltges Distributions (Luxembourg), Lumière (Belgium), Maison 4:3 (Canada) and Pathé Touch Afrique (Francophone Africa)

International sales: MK2

In theaters March 4, 2026 🎬