*La Maison du Vent* (*House of the Wind*) is a 102-minute drama in French and Bafang about an 80-year-old mother who lives alone in Yaoundé while her children are in the West. On September 12, 2026, Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu’s first feature received the Lion of the Future and the Orizzonti Special Jury Prize at the 83rd Venice Film Festival. Its emergence is best understood through the combination of a family story, a six-country co-production, and support secured while the film remained unfinished.
A house intended to bring the children back
According to the Biennale’s official film page, Josette lives alone in Yaoundé, Cameroon, after all her children have left for the West. She encourages them to build houses in their native country as a way of bringing them home. Her unexpected connection with Sarah, a young neighbor, unsettles her ideas about family, responsibility, and the future.
Director and screenwriter Kouemo Yanghu links the premise to his own story. Originally from Cameroon and a resident of France for 20 years, he says Josette was inspired by his mother. Like the character, she remained in the large family house in Yaoundé after her six children moved elsewhere, mainly to Europe. The home therefore holds memory, loneliness, and the expectation of return.
The principal cast includes Josette Kwanya, Moudjeu Pouadeu, and Adrien Jolivet. Eva Sehet handled cinematography; Ewin Ryckaert and Geoffroy Cernaix edited; Rosine Nkem designed the production; Valérie Elemva created the costumes; and Michel Duprez and Blick Bassy composed the music.
French and Bafang in the same film
The Biennale identifies French and Bafang as the feature’s languages. This places the work culturally without turning language into a curiosity: a story set in Yaoundé reached an international platform with Bafang preserved among its official languages.
The sources do not say how much dialogue is spoken in each language or explain the linguistic choices in particular scenes. It is therefore impossible to assign undocumented narrative effects to the combination. What can be established is that bilingualism is formally part of a film about a family separated by migration.
A co-production across six countries
The 2026 presentation associates the film with Cameroon, France, Belgium, Benin, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. Its producers are Horizons d’Afrique, represented by Linda Natacha Kwanya and Kouemo Yanghu; Arthur Grec’s La Mansarde Cinéma; John Engel’s Steel Fish Pictures; Faissol Gnonlonfin’s Merveilles Production; the Red Sea Fund; and the Doha Film Institute.
The companies have listed addresses in Yaoundé, Paris, Brussels, and Cotonou, while the funds connect the structure to Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The page also names Celluloid Dreams as the world-sales company. This reveals a concrete network across Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, but does not mean every partner had an identical role. The consulted sources disclose neither contracts, budget, nor the division of rights.
The unfinished-cut laboratory
In July 2025, *House of the Wind* was among eight projects selected for Final Cut in Venice, then credited to Cameroon, Benin, France, and Belgium. The Venice Production Bridge program presents working copies to producers, buyers, distributors, post-production companies, and festival programmers. Its purpose is to help films from Africa and designated Middle Eastern countries reach completion and access the market.
The edition ran from August 31 to September 2, 2025. The project did not receive the main Biennale prize, which went to *The Station*, but it secured two forms of partner support. According to the official Final Cut awards record, Rome-based M74 offered up to €10,000 in 2D digital visual effects. Mnemonica provided its cloud platform to store, share, and distribute the film, a service valued at €10,000.
Those contributions do not reveal which shots changed or permit a comparison between cuts. They document technical resources obtained during finishing: visual effects and secure management of files needed for professional circulation.
Why the two awards are different
One year later, the feature competed in Orizzonti, a section with its own jury. The official winners list gives *La Maison du Vent* the Orizzonti Special Jury Prize. The section’s Best Film prize went to *Un détour par Diane*, so the distinctions should not be confused.
The other recognition came from a separate jury: the Lion of the Future — “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film. Together, the awards distinguish the work both within the Orizzonti competition and among the festival’s eligible first films. This simultaneous result, rather than a vague designation as an “award-winning film,” explains its particular place in the 2026 honors.
How to follow its circulation
The awards confirm its institutional reception in Venice, but the sources announce neither a commercial release nor streaming availability. To follow changes, search for *La Maison du Vent*, *House of the Wind*, and Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu’s full name in official catalogs and channels.
The verified journey is already substantial: a personal story set in Yaoundé and also spoken in Bafang progressed from a working copy supported in 2025 to two honors from different juries in 2026.
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