Sing, Freetown review – creative pain and pride in Sierra Leone

This special film follows a journalist and a theatre-maker as they attempt to reframe their national identity on stage, even as the project threatens their long friendship

Cinema is often connected to dreams and triumphs, and yet failure can make for a far more arresting subject. This astonishing documentary both demythologises the creative process and captures a tortuous artistic collaboration full of human messiness and complexity.

With an evocative opening image of a man paddling a small boat towards the shore, Sing, Freetown is about returning, both physically and metaphorically. The image recalls the history of Sierra Leone as a territory where liberated Africans resettled after the slave trade was outlawed. Bafta- and Emmy-winning journalist Sorious Samura is also on his own odyssey. Weary of reporting on the poverty and civil unrest in Africa, Samura has come back to Sierra Leone, his homeland, to create a theatre piece that is positive about the nation's pride and its rich history. Joining him is Charlie Haffner, Samura's friend, mentor and founding figure of modern Sierra Leonean theatre. The pair encounter funding difficulties and resistance from the government. These are to be expected; what they do not predict is how the project would irretrievably puncture their relationship.