“A tense, beautiful, heartbreaking film.”

– Vulture

The Battle for Laikipia

by Daphne Matziaraki & Peter Murimi • 2024 • 94’ • Kenya/USA/Greece

 Credits

Directors: 
Daphne Matziaraki & Peter Murimi

Producers:
Toni Kamau, Daphne Matziaraki

Executive Producers:
Roger Ross Williams, Geoff Martz, Jody Allen, Jason Hunke, Shari Sant, Shannon Joy, Tiffany Schauer

Unresolved historical injustices and a devastating drought raise the stakes in a generations-old conflict between indigenous farmers and white landowners in Laikipia, Kenya, a wildlife conservation haven.

Awards & Festivals

Winner: Toni Kamau, Sundance Amazon MGM Studios Nonfiction Producers Award
— Sundance 2024

CPH:DOX 2024
HotDocs 2024
Sydney Film Festival 2024

Filmmaker’s Biography

Daphne Matziaraki is a Greek documentary film director who lives between Greece and the San Francisco Bay Area. She directed, produced, shot, and edited The New York Times Op Doc 4.1 MILES, for which she received an Academy Award nomination, as well as an Emmy nomination and a Peabody Award. Daphne has directed, shot, produced, and edited films that chronicle major social, political, and environmental developments in Europe, Africa, the United States, and the Middle East. She mentors documentary filmmakers for the Stavros Niarchos Artworks fellowship program and Docubox. She holds a Master’s in Journalism from UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and a Master’s in International Relations from the University of Bristol. 

Peter Murimi is a multiple award-winning Kenyan documentary director/producer focusing on hard-hitting social issues. His feature-length documentary I AM SAMUEL (2020) tells the story of a gay Kenyan man’s struggle for acceptance and has been shown at more than a dozen film festivals, including Hot Docs, BFI LFF, and Human Rights Watch. Murimi has led numerous investigations for BBC Africa Eye including THE BABY STEALERS (2020), which exposed a child trafficking syndicate and led to multiple arrests, and SUICIDE STORIES (2019), for which he won the Rory Peck News Features Award. He has made films in 30 African countries for major media outlets including Al Jazeera and Channel 4 News.

Developed with the support of 

DOCUBOX EADFF
NEW YORK TIMES OP DOCS

Produced with the support of 

WILD LIVES FOUNDATION
DOC SOCIETY CLIMATE STORY FUND
FORD FOUNDATION JUSTFILMS
THRESHOLD FOUNDATION
CODE BLUE FOUNDATION
GREEK MINISTRY OF CULTURE 
 GREEK FILM CENTRE
SUNDANCE INSTITUTE
SHANNON O’ LEARY JOY
PULITZER CENTER ON CRISIS REPORTING
BERTHA FOUNDATION
OUR CHILDREN’S EARTH FOUNDATION
BERKELEY FILM FOUNDATION

Film supported by the following pitching forums

HOT DOCS PITCH FORUM 2023
FIFDH GENEVA IMPACT DAYS