The official Amsterdam opening of Kaboom 2026, with the touching opening film Allah Is Not Obliged.

After
kicking off in Utrecht, Kaboom 2026 will now conquer Amsterdam too.
Continue celebrating with animation lovers from all over the world in
Eye Filmmuseum’s futuristic UFO (or angular oyster). Because this
year’s theme Human Touch isn’t only about handcrafted art,
but also about people coming together and being touched by each
other’s stories.

Allah
Is Not Obliged
For
his debut feature, director Zaven Najjar (art director of La
Sirène, 2023) did both. He visited the original locations where
Ahmadou Kourouma’s celebrated Ivorian novel is set and sketched on
site. But he also went there to meet people – you cannot tell the
story of West African child soldiers without thoroughly educating
yourself. And talking to those involved, soldiers, survivors.

Najjar’s
protagonist Birahima is a twelve-year-old from Guinea who, after
being orphaned, is sent to live with his aunt in Liberia. That
country is being torn apart by warlords, however, and he quickly gets
arrested, drilled, armed and sent out on raids. With his Armenian
ancestry from Syria and Lebanon, Najjar also has personal experience
of how families talk about civil wars. Or don’t. Similarly to his
producer Sébastien Onomo, who is of Cameroonian descent. Together
with their team, they crafted a beautiful film that grabs you by the
throat.

This program screened as part of Kaboom Animation Festival 2026

Showing in this program

Allah Is Not Obliged

• Zaven Najjar
• Belgium / Canada / France / Luxembourg, 2025
• 82 min.

One
moment you’re playing in the streets of Guinea; next, you’re a
child soldier. On his way to his aunt in Liberia, twelve-year-old
orphan Birahima is arrested by warlords, armed, drugged, and sent out
on raids. An unsettling, moving, occasionally joyful, and
extensively researched adaptation of a renowned Ivorian novel.