Crocodile

In Nigeria, a group of teenagers founded the collective The Critics. With the most basic resources but an abundance of cinephile passion, they conjure handmade sci-fi spectacles: their own village becomes the set, the green screen is sewn together by hand, and the cast is recruited from neighbourhood children. Their films transform everyday life into wild dreamscapes – both an escape and a refuge. Creating images is, above all, play and pleasure for them, a window to the outside world and, at the same time, a door that genuinely opens outward. In Crocodile, The Critics appear both in front of and behind the camera, while Pietra Brettkelly edits their words and images into their stories: their political engagement, heated debates, moments of doubt and despair, rifts and resistance, and the gradual professionalisation of their craft. Their energy, vitality and determined will to invent and self-invent – a coming-of-age carried by the magic of the audiovisual medium – ultimately leave everyone smiling. (Yun-hua Chen)

The Critics are a group of five – Raymond, Ronald and Richard Yusuff, Godwin and Victor Josiah. With no formal film education and since being young children, The Critics have developed a cinematic language rooted in imagination, experimentation, and community. They have made 54 short films from sci-fi to drama.

Pietra Brettkelly is a three times Oscar-selected, Sundance award-winning filmmaker, a member of AMPAS and an Arts Laureate of New Zealand. Pietra’s film premieres include Venice, Toronto and Tribeca.

Directors The Critics, Pietra Brettkelly. Screenplay Pietra Brettkelly. Cinematography The Critics, Rachael Yusuff, Basile Carre-Agostini, David Wills Augustin. Editing Cushla Dillon, Chia Chi Hsu, Nicolas Chaudeurge. Music Various Various. Sound Design Tom Scott-Toft. Producers Pietra Brettkelly, The Critics. Executive Producers Sir Idris Elba, Fran Wyborn, Chelsea Winstanley, Diene Petterle, Cushla Dillon, Kath Jones, Dave Long. Production companies Pietra Brettkelly Films (Auckland, New Zealand), Clan Yujo (Kaduna, Nigeria). With Raymond J. Yusuff, Godwin Josiah, Ronald Yusuff, Victor Josiah, Richard Yusuff, Rachael Yusuff, Rachel Ken, Rejoice Josiah, Raphael (Bobo) Ken.

World sales Mediawan

Films

The Critics (selection): 2022: Ogun Ola: War is Coming. 2023: One Can Only Hope and Wonder. 2026: Crocodile.

Pietra Brettkelly: 2003: Beauty Will Save the World (documentary). 2008: The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins (documentary). 2012: Māori Boy Genius (documentary, Berlinale Generation 2012). 2015: A Flickering Truth (documentary). 2018: Yellow is Forbidden (documentary). 2026: Crocodile.