Code der Angst

“Berlin 2018. In a newspaper article I read about the terrible death of the young journalist Eric Lebembe in Cameroon, my home country. He was tortured and beaten to death simply because he was gay and fought for gay rights. I decide to make a film about it.” (Appolain Siewe)

CODE OF FEAR tells the living situation of LGBT people in Cameroon. At the same time, it shows the Cameroonian director Appolain Siewe's personal confrontation with his homophobic upbringing, the intolerance towards homosexuals in Cameroonian society and in his own family, whose original homophobic tradition has now become alien to him.

Because his life in Germany has changed Appolain's perspective. When he flies to his old homeland to film in order to understand why homophobia is so anchored in Cameroonian society, the first thing he has the sad experience of is that his beloved father denies himself because of it and doesn't want to see him.

Appolains Siewe's own experiences, the touching encounters with activists who fight with incredible courage for tolerance in their country despite great dangers, and his conversations with Cameroonian scientists, in particular the well-known Cameroonian human rights lawyer Alice Nkom, who won the Amnesty Human Rights Prize in 2014 International Germany received, making the film a unique document.