Pumzi

Pumzi is a Kenyan sciencefiction short film written and directed by Wanuri Kahiu. It was screened at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival as part of its New African Cinema program. The project was funded with grants from the Changamoto arts fund, as well as from the Goethe Institut and Focus Features Africa First short film program which are also to distribute the work. Kahiu hopes to expand the short into a fulllength feature. The film is in English, but the title is Swahili for Breath.

Nature is extinct. The outside is dead. Asha lives and works as a museum curator in one of the indoor communities set up by the Maitu Council. When she receives a box in the mail containing soil, she plants an old seed in it and the seed immediately starts germinating. Asha appeals to the Council to grant her permission to investigate the possibility of life on the outside, but the Council denies her exit visa. Upon resisting the Council further, hostile agents are sent to the natural history museum and proceed to destroy the surrounding exhibits before forcibly dragging Asha from her workstation.However, Asha, still in possession of the seed, manages to escape into the desertlike outside world with the help of a bathroom janitor soon after being captured. Following a compass given to her by the janitor, Asha manages to find the tree from her dreams after nearly fainting in the oppressive desert heat. With her final strength, Asha plants the seed in the ground by the tree and pours her remaining water over it before further nourishing the seed with her sweat. The movie concludes with Asha passing out on the desert floor as the camera zooms out revealing an unseen lush forest beside her. ........

Source: Wikipedia