Synopsis: The Couple Next Door follows a single, age-conscious woman whose desires for companionship begin to stir when an eccentric African couple moves into her apartment building. Inspired by Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love, the film features lush cinematography and music from West Africa, making the entire piece a cultural exchange that makes us question our morality when it comes to love, marriage, and friendship.

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Born in Heidelberg, Germany, Abbesi Akhamie is a Nigerian-American writer/director currently based in New York City. She received her MFA in Film from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and also holds a BA in Communications from George Mason University. She has a keen interest in African storytelling and uses film as a medium to share these stories. She has produced two African short films—Samedi Cinema and Facing North—that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2016 and 2018 respectively. In 2017, she wrote and directed her debut short film Still Water Runs Deep in Nigeria that also premiered at TIFF and won ‘Best Student Film’ at the prestigious Aspen ShortsFest. The film is distributed by Salaud Morisset and continues to broadcast internationally. In the past, Abbesi has been a Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellow, NYSCA/NYFA Fellow in Film, and a Berlinale Talent. Currently, she is Creative Culture Fellow at the Jacob Burn Film Center where she will create two short films. She attended the TIFF Filmmaker Lab with her debut feature film, In My Father’s House, that is currently in development and will be filmed in Nigeria.

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