Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese

Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese was born on 17 January 1980 in the small town of Hlotse, Lesotho, where he spent his childhood immersed in the dim glow of a community hall that screened 16 mm B‑grade movies. The experience of watching these low‑budget pictures ignited a lifelong fascination with visual storytelling, prompting him to write poetry before ever picking up a camera. After completing secondary school, Mosese co‑founded the production outfit Vision 12, a venture that struggled financially but gave him his first taste of the challenges of independent filmmaking in a landlocked African nation. In 2007 he returned to Lesotho and directed his debut feature, Khapha tsa Mali (Tears of Blood), a film he later dismissed as “bad cinema” but which marked the beginning of a prolific, experimental career. Over the next decade he crafted a trilogy of short works—Mosonngoa (2014), Behemoth or the Game of God (2016), and Loss of Innocence (2008)—each blending narrative, documentary, and installation formats and earning accolades across the international festival circuit. His breakthrough arrived in 2019 with the essay‑film Mother, I Am Suffocating. This Is My Last Film About You, a poetic docufiction that explored his personal exile from Lesotho; it premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and was subsequently screened at institutions such as MoMA and Museum Ludwig. The acclaim continued with In This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection (2020), a haunting tale of a widowed mother who leads her community against a dam threatening the village cemetery; the film, developed through the Biennale College, featured at Venice, Rotterdam, Sundance and garnered the Special Jury Award for Visionary Filmmaking at Sundance. Mosese’s third feature, Ancestral Visions of the Future, deepens his interrogation of landscape, memory and post‑colonial identity, drawing inspiration from Jamaican theorist Sylvia Wynter. Throughout his oeuvre, Mosese is celebrated for his sparse dialogue, striking poetic imagery, and a persistent preoccupation with childhood recollections, spiritual yearning, and the metaphors of death and rebirth. In 2025 he was appointed to the jury of the 78th Locarno Film Festival for the Pardi di Domani short‑film competition, underscoring his growing influence as both an artist and a mentor. Residing in Berlin, Mosese continues to navigate the tensions between his Mosotho roots and his European present, shaping a unique cinematic language that resonates with audiences worldwide.