In Phiona, a Girl From Madrid, acclaimed Rwandan filmmaker Mutiganda wa Nkunda tells a story of homecoming and inner reckoning. After three years in Madrid—a city rendered almost metaphorical in its distance and freedom—Phiona returns to Kigali, where a single charged family conversation pulls her into deeper questions of identity, expectation, and belonging.

Directed by Mutiganda wa Nkunda—who won FESPACO’s Best Screenplay for Nameless, all without writing a script—this feature brings honesty and nuance to his exploration of diaspora and tradition. He explores questions of identity and reveals its deeper layers: belonging, judgment, and the guilt of choosing one path over another.

As Phiona navigates tensions between who she’s become and who she’s expected to be, the film gently unpacks themes of judgment, familial ties, and the unspoken guilt that can accompany personal freedom. Through sparse dialogue, nuanced performances, and a deep sense of place, Phiona, a Girl From Madrid reminds us that identity is rarely fixed—it stretches, fragments, and reshapes itself between places, between people, and between versions of the self we leave behind or long to reclaim.