Sundance award winner Lemohang Mosese is in post-production with his fourth feature film, “Ancestral Visions of the Future,” which he’ll be presenting during the Venice Production Bridge’s Final Cut pics-in-post workshop for films from Africa and the Arab world.

The film is described as “a deeply personal examination of identity, childhood, death and exile through the perspectives of a puppeteer, a mother, a boy, a farmer and a city.” Pitched as an “allegorical essay,” it centers on a puppeteer in a marketplace in an unnamed African town who wants the locals to return to their traditional ways.

An herbalist, preacher and erstwhile prophet, the puppeteer “preaches to [the villagers] about beauty, about what people can become,” Mosese tells Variety . “He wants to prolong their lives, because he believes that human life is so magnificent but so short — they live such a short life span to correct the mistakes of their predecessors.

“[But] the city becomes harsh towards him. Like many people, the city weighs them down and crushes them into the earth.”

The director describes “Ancestral Visions” as his most personal film yet and an attempt to create something whole from the “fragmented memory of my past.” “It’s the closest thing to how I think, and it’s the…closest thing to my life, to the actual events that happened in my childhood,” he says.

Mosese's childhood was shaped by the harsh realities of Lesotho, a small, mountainous nation in Southern Africa with a tragically high murder rate. Violence was a constant presence in his life. His family faced eviction from their home, forcing them to move to the outskirts of his hometown, Hlotse, an experience he describes as “the first time I lost the sense of a place.”

Based in Berlin in recent years, Mosese has grappled with the theme of exile both in his professional life and personal journey. “I always hoped to return to a place I could call home. I felt like I was always in transit, never settling down in Germany,” he explains. “I always believed that one day I would go back, to return to a place I could truly call home. A place of beauty and belonging.”

A year ago, after a period of extensive travel and self-reflection, he found his perspective abruptly shifted. While sitting in a Berlin café, he witnessed a disheveled African man “speaking in his mother tongue, shouting.” For Mosese, it was a profound experience, almost as if he was watching from outside himself.

“In that moment, I saw a reflection of myself. I felt that my past — living here and living there — it all converged. Our lives, both of ours, intersected,” he reflects. “The only difference was that I wasn't in rags. I was enjoying cappuccino and a croissant. But we were united in that moment. And I felt like I understood him.

“At that moment, I realized that the idea of going home was never a reality, never my true intention. It was a mirage,” Mosese continues. “It was a hope that helped me endure the hardships. It kept me going through my challenges and struggles in Europe, because I was looking forward to going home. But then, I started to understand, this place is only in my head.”

This epiphany led to a series of questions that compelled him to revisit his childhood and the country he left behind through film, asking himself: “Was the place I left that bad? What drove me to leave? What was the cost?”

"Ancestral Visions," co-produced by Agat Films, Mokaoari Street Media, and Seera Films, follows Mosese's acclaimed 2019 film, " Mother, I Am Suffocating. This Is My Last Film About You ," an introspective docufiction reflecting on the filmmaker's exile from Lesotho. The film premiered at the Berlinale's Forum strand.

Mosese's subsequent film, "This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection," is a visually stunning, allegorical story about an elderly widow whose village faces displacement due to a dam construction project. It debuted in the international competition at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, winning a special jury prize for "visionary filmmaking."

Described by Variety 's Guy Lodge in a glowing review as "the kind of myth-rooted, avant-garde Southern African storytelling that rarely graces the international festival circuit," the film became the first ever Lesotho submission for the best international feature film Oscar.

Mosese credits his mother, who inspired "Ancestral Visions," for helping him through a challenging childhood. He recounts, "my teachers and my grandmother often predicted I would end up dead or incarcerated." After their family was forced out of their home, his mother would assure them, "This is temporary. I will build a better future for all of us."

"The belief in dreams and the power of hope comes from my mother," Mosese shares. "Growing up in Lesotho, it's almost like you need to be delusional to believe you can succeed in cinema."