A Ghanaian fisherman, a talking fish, and a dream too stubborn to die. That is the premise of The Fisherman, and it arrives in East African cinemas on April 3, 2026.
Written and directed by Zoey Martinson, the film opens simultaneously in Nairobi, Mombasa, and Lusaka, marking its East African theatrical debut following a run on the international festival circuit that began at the 81st Venice International Film Festival, where it won the UNESCO Fellini Medal.
From Venice to Nairobi
The Fisherman has collected recognition at several festivals where African cinema gets serious attention. It won Best Feature at the American Black Film Festival, took Best Ghanaian Film at the REFFA Awards, and earned a NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding International Motion Picture. For a film rooted in Ghanaian coastal life and steeped in magical realism, the breadth of that recognition says something about how widely the story travels.
Martinson, whose directing credits span Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, A24, Showtime, and Mzansi Magic, brought her background in comedy and theatre to a story that moves between the quiet of a fishing village and the noise of Accra. The result sits somewhere between fable and road trip — grounded in a place and culture, but asking questions that land anywhere people have chased something they were told was out of reach.
At a pre-screening in Nairobi ahead of the official premiere, Martinson spoke about what it meant to watch Kenyan audiences connect with the story.
“The Fisherman has come a long way to reach this milestone,” she said. “Seeing the culture and heritage of Ghana being told in a humorous way and seeing Kenyans being able to relate to it is just astounding.”
She added: “The film speaks of dreaming bigger beyond your circumstances, and sometimes the universe sends help in the most unexpected form, even if it is a talking fish.”
What the Film Is About
Atta Oko is a retired fisherman with one remaining ambition: to own his own boat and earn the quiet respect of his village. The plan seems straightforward enough. Then a sarcastic talking fish enters the picture.
What follows pulls Atta Oko out of his coastal routine and into the chaos of Accra, where his dream meets a city that operates on entirely different rules. The film uses that collision — between village life and city life, between the world as it is and the world as Atta Oko imagined it — to tell a story about ambition, friendship, and what it costs to keep moving toward something when the path stops making sense.
The comedy is not incidental. It is the point. Martinson uses humour as the vehicle for everything else the film wants to say.
Why Kenya and Zambia First
Producer Kofi Owusu-Afriyie, also present at the Nairobi pre-screening, was direct about the thinking behind the East African rollout.
“We chose to start with Kenya and Zambia as they proved to have a thriving and established film industry, as seen by the large numbers of people who watch and support locally and African produced films,” he said. “With government backed support from commissions like the Kenya Film Commission and the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation, we see great potential for The Fisherman in East Africa.”
Owusu-Afriyie described the release as part of a longer effort to build distribution channels that keep African made films accessible across the continent and to encourage production partnerships between filmmakers in different regions.
The cast attending the Nairobi pre-screening included Ricky Adelayitar, who plays Atta Oko, William Lamptey as Kobina, and Endurance Grand as Shasha. The Fisherman is produced by Luu Vision Media, with Owusu-Afriyie and Korey Jackson as producers.
Where to Watch
The Fisherman opens in cinemas across Nairobi, Mombasa, and Lusaka on April 3, 2026, as part of a theatrical rollout across Africa.
