PATHE BC AFRIQUE, theatrical release company in Francophone Africa and APO Group (www.APO-opa.com), the leading pan-African communications consultancy and press release distribution service, announced today a partnership to support the release of ABOVE WATER. This is the first feature film as a director for the actress Aïssa Maïga.

Watch the trailer: Marcher sur l'eau - Bande-annonce officielle - Orange Studio – YouTube (https://bit.ly/3n7t49i)

Download Press Kit (EN) - https://bit.ly/3jazzHa

Download Press kit (FR) - https://bit.ly/3FWXOSZ

With this collaboration, the first of its kind, APO Group becomes the official partner of the release of ABOVE WATER in Francophone Africa, on November 10^th, 2021, in North Africa and November 12^th in Sub-Saharan African countries.

Synopsis :

A victim of global warming, the village of Tatiste in northern Niger is trapped in a constant struggle for water. Every day, 14-year-old Houlaye and other children walk many kilometres to fetch water, which the village needs to survive. This daily task makes regular school attendance impossible. The lack of water also drives adults to leave their families each year and cross the borders in search of resources for their livelihood. Yet, beneath this region lies an aquifer spanning several thousand square kilometres. Drilling a well would bring precious water to the centre of the village and ensure a better life for everyone...

ABOVE WATER arrives in cinemas crowned with an official selection during the Cannes Film Festival 2021, within the section “CINEMA FOR THE CLIMATE” and will be in official competition (documentary section) during FESPACO 2021, which will be held from October 15^th to 23^rd in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

ABOVE WATER is a film that aims to raise awareness of a major social issue: access to water. About 2.2 billion people worldwide do not have direct access to drinking water. Every day, 10,000 people die due to lack of water or an illness caused by ingesting contaminated water (cholera, dysentery, typhoid and even polio). Niger, a semi-desert country at the heart of Sub-Saharan Africa, is representative of the problem, but also promising. On the one hand, it has been hit hard by climate change and repeated drought. On the other hand, it is one of the places in the world where the fight by rural communities and their inhabitants to resolve this problem, with the support of the government, is the most determined and dynamic.

APO Group is renowned as the leading communications consultancy in Africa, and its partnership with Above Water highlights the vast potential of the entertainment industry on the continent.

“For APO Group, this is an opportunity to get involved in a project that raises important questions about the impact of water scarcity on the lives of African people. We also know the film industry in Africa is thriving, and Above Water is a fantastic chance to show new global audiences that African cinema can be both entertaining and thought-provoking,” said APO Group Founder and Chairman Nicolas Pompigne-Mognard (www.Pompigne-Mognard.com).

Together, APO GROUP and PATHE BC AFRIQUE are committed to promote ABOVE WATER to the largest audience and raise awareness about water access and solutions to solve this issue.

Jean-François CAMILLERI, producer of the film via ECHO STUDIO, and PATHE BC AFRIQUE founding partner: “ABOVE WATER is all at once an inspiring documentary, a heartbreaking author’s film and a fabulous tool to educate the audience about the problem of access to water. With APO GROUP, we could not have dreamed of a more powerful partner to help us communicate the values of this film to African audiences and spread the message on the continent.”

Aïssa Maïga, film director: “Above Water is a film that I wanted to be human, full of emotion and above all in the form of an immersion in the life of a West African community. The cinema makes it possible to show the difficulties in everyday life. But I also wanted to give a face to the extraordinary dignity of West African populations in the face of climate change and lack of water.”

Benjamin Reyntjes, Managing Director of Pathé BC Afrique: “It is in the DNA of Pathé BC Afrique to support the diversity of films as well as their accessibility to a large audience.  ABOVE WATER perfectly embodies our desire to support works of high cinematographic quality while offering a strong resonance to an environmental issue. Thanks to her film, Aïssa Maïga proves that it is possible to offer viewers all the beauty and emotions of cinema in a piece of art that is both full of delicacy and loaded with meaning. APO GROUP, a major player in communication in Africa, allows us, through its commitment and this partnership, to promote the film on the continent and to raise public awareness on this fundamental subject.”