← Two worlds in development · since 2019
Ndambafeminine noun
The football, and football as an activity: the word means either, interchangeably.
An animated series of twelve 13-minute episodes. In a futuristic Cameroon, the sky has cracked and football has become an arena of supernatural powers. Couso, a young attacking midfielder, wants to lift his family out of poverty; his rivalry with Magnan, an electric goalkeeper, will redefine both their destinies.
Form
Animated series, 12 × 13 minutes
Genre
Sports and family drama, modern fantasy
Author
Francis Leudjeu: creation and writing · Abyl Studio
Where I stand
Presentation dossier (2024), start of a treatment, script of the prologue, eight characters designed
Looking for
Co-producers and patrons
Drawn by hand, on a tablet
After hearing again and again that animation cinema could not be made in Africa, and more precisely in Cameroon, I felt something boiling inside me. A few years later, it gave birth to my animation studio.
Ndamba took shape in my mind as scenes, characters and an era that I struggled to put on paper, and that I wanted all the more to show.
The series is about personal fulfillment, conflict between generations, personal dreams set against the pressure of family and society. Football is a catalyst: of dreams, of rivalries and of self-discovery.
With African masks and expressive faces, dynamic animation and an immersive soundtrack, I want to merge the richness of Cameroonian culture with gripping storytelling and universal themes, beyond the pitch and the screen.
In a world where the sky has cracked, revealing the extraordinary, football is much more than a sport: it is an arena where you win or lose your future.
The series opens on this fracture. The sky splits above Bakum with a deafening roar. Glacial winds pour out, frozen birds fall, a frozen plane crashes onto the stadium. The snow falls without pause and those who are slow to take shelter freeze where they stand.
Since then, supernatural powers have been passed down in families of tradition. Football has become a risky ground: as one character puts it, playing without a power is suicidal. Witchcraft is openly practiced and political intrigue is everywhere, because the presidency of the Cameroonian federation is coveted.
Powers reflect skills on the pitch and family legacies. A hawk glides above the stadium and gives Couso a view of the game from above. Magnan is crossed by electricity, which gives him lightning speed. Couso watches on a loop the last match of the golden generation of Cameroon’s Lions: Mo’o the Sun with his flaming legs, Simba the lion, Mballa the thunderbolt in goal.
Couso believes in the collective. Magnan believes he can do everything alone. Their rivalry reveals truths about sport and about life.
Couso, 17, wants to involve everyone, even the least talented, and make up for their weaknesses. Magnan, an individualist, thinks other people’s weakness should not slow him down. They meet in a duel: Magnan alone in goal, facing Couso and his ten teammates. He stops everything, mocks Couso’s philosophy of play and says he is doomed to wander in football’s shadow. Then Coach, a former player of the previous generation who spotted him in a street match, offers to carry him to the top.
Couso has to choose between his personal ambitions, the Ballon d’Or, and the unity of his friends. For the final confrontation he tries to manipulate them; they discover what he really thinks of them and reject him. After the defeat, some give up football, and Magnan shows him the limits of his philosophy.
He learns to let go, to look for his own happiness and to respect other people’s choices even when they differ from his. In the epilogue, Couso and Magnan meet again among the national team’s cadets: a new phase of their relationship begins.
The prologue script is written: six sequences. It goes back to the previous generation, with the fall of a legendary goalkeeper and the son he does not know.
Script by Francis Leudjeu.
All follow the same grammar: ebony skin, only the face colored, symbolic colors, half-sphere ears, sphere eyes, sculpted noses, hair and eyebrows that carry meaning. See the rules on the annotated plate
17 years old · attacking midfielder
From a family in great financial difficulty, the son of a taxi driver and a teacher, he cannot wait to bring light to his own. He also wants to compete for the African Ballon d’Or.
A manipulator on and off the pitch, for the good of his team, he carries a heavy mental and physical load to make up for everyone’s handicaps. His “Divine Vision” lets him see the stadium, and life, from above.
17 years old · goalkeeper
Couso’s rival and the eldest son of Mballa Sr., he inherits the lightning power that made his father famous and plays in goal like him. Under the pressure of his father’s extreme expectations, he is violent and quick to anger. A goalkeeper, he is paradoxically the best scorer of the Mballa Football Academy.
He hopes to find his mother and so seeks Mballa Sr.’s esteem, to draw information from him. He lived on the street until he was 13. He gets his powers by coming close to death, beaten for theft, and the man he had robbed turns out to be his biological father.
Magnan’s father · a former football star
He lives with the regret of never having won the World Cup with the Lions. It was during that match that his electric power left him, leaving only significant motor limitations. Since then, he projects onto his son his hope of lifting the cup by proxy. We see him young in the prologue.
From his football academy, he also tries to control Cameroonian football by becoming president of the FECAFOOT. He faces the mayor of Bakum, who uses politics to rise to the top of the institution as well.
Mathematics teacher
The best friend of Mr. So’o, Couso’s father, he cares about Couso’s future; he considers him his son and finds him a genius. He hopes to see him take his studies to postgraduate level, which he could not do himself for lack of means, and above all of guidance.
He fears Couso will lose himself in a football he finds useless.
Magnan’s former friend
The only friend Magnan ever had. Because of a conflict they had as children, when Magnan still lived on the street, he seeks to destroy everything Magnan holds dear. He hates that Magnan got out without pulling him out of the street too.
Having himself joined a football academy, he wants to beat Magnan on the ball, or outside a stadium.
18 years old · Couso’s friend
One of Couso’s two best friends, with Eka. A football fan, he does not plan to make it his vocation: for him it is a distraction more than a career. He aims for the civil service to support his family.
Charismatic, he is usually the captain of the Bakum high school team. Responsible and honest, he does not hesitate to tell people what he thinks of them or of their actions.
Goalkeeper of the Bakum high school
Goalkeeper of the Bakum high school first team, a swindler and a faker, he likes to confuse referees and get his opponents penalized. Off the pitch, his personality remains elusive and machiavellian.
Magnan’s younger sister · two personalities
Very withdrawn by nature, almost invisible, she is the link between Couso and Magnan. She loves Couso and hopes he will become a friend to Magnan, who tends to push everyone away.
She is bipolar. Under intense stress, as in high-stakes matches, her other personality takes over: she becomes violent, aggressive both physically and verbally. On the plate, the two poses are her two faces, one very feminine and withdrawn, the other very masculine and coarse.
Ndamba has been in development since 2019 (former titles: FootZone, SuperOnze). The presentation dossier (2024) brings together the statement of intent, the summary, the narrative dynamic in eight chapters and the start of a treatment. The prologue script is written and eight characters are designed.
The next step is funding. The animation team will come afterwards: I do not want to gather animators before I can support them.
Write to me in three lines: your organization, what interests you in the project, your deadline.