Thai food has long been one of the hottest cuisines in major cities around the world. But if you live in Nairobi, it can be quite difficult to find authentic Thai food—for those of us who have been to Thailand, being served with inauthentic ‘Thai’ food can be quite depressing. But how can novices tell the difference?

A boy lies between two railway tracks in Kibera, his eyes are closed, he seems calm but a train can be heard, coming closer and closer. From the opening shots of director Hawa Essuman’s debut feature Soul Boy, you can tell this is something a little special. The film, which was nominated for five Africa Movie Academy Awards this year, tells the story of 14-year-old Abila who sets off to recover his father’s soul after Nyawawa, a witch with a cow’s leg, takes it.

Think of a food court and most likely you’ll envision unhealthy fast food, limited service and shabby cutlery. Think again. Once unfashionable, they’ve undergone a makeover ... reborn as the essence of modern lifestyle.

From the opening shots of director Hawa Essuman’s debut feature Soul Boy, you can tell this is something a little special. The film tells the story of 14-year-old Abila who sets off to recover his father’s soul after Nyawawa, a witch with a cow’s leg, takes it. Abila tracks down the witch, who says he must carry out seven tasks in 24 hours to win back his father’s soul. So begins a magical journey that takes Abila through Kibera and out into the suburbs of Karen as he discovers his own power to change the world. So far so mystical, but the beauty of Soul Boy lies in how its creators deftly combine a kind of magic realism with prosaic scenes of everyday life. The film features motifs and symbols from that body of literature that tells of a young prince on a quest, ostensibly seeking treasure or victory over a monster but really on a journey of self-discovery. This is the theme in works like Homer’s Odyssey, Dante’s Divine Comedy, right down to Raiders of the Lost Ark. Soul Boy slips easily into this tradition and yet the setting is resolutely modern: Kibera with its lively chaos, its hustler kids, suited spivs and hard-working, hardtalking women. Abila is played with mature understatement by Samson Odhiambo from Kibera, who was cast just one day before shooting began. Leila Dayan Opou from Mathare plays his feisty friend Shiku, and owns the screen with her spirited performance. Abila and Shiku guide us through a world of contrasts that is both familiar and strange, a recognizably modern world where another dimension is a fact of life. The concept should perhaps be awkward but it works, and works well. Soul Boy grew out of a workshop organised by German director Tom Tykwer and his partner Marie Steinmann through their production company One Fine Day Films. Working with Ginger and Guy Wilson of the Nairobi-based production company Ginger Ink and British NGO Anno’s Africa, they set up the workshop to share their expertise with local youths by making a feature film. Kenyan author Billy Kahora wrote the script, and Kenyan-Ghanaian Essuman came on board to direct, with Tykwer as her mentor. The film was shot in just 13 days at the end of 2008.