Kenyan filmmaker Noella Luka is showcasing what it is like to live with Bipolar Disorder in her new film “What Is Eating My Mind.”

The film documents Noella’s journey, an aspiring African filmmaker dreaming of living and working abroad when she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder while studying at a film school in North Carolina, USA. 

Now back in Kenya, where discussions around mental health issues are not the norm, Noella tries to figure out how to navigate this unknown territory with her family when she meets Nick through a mental health support group.

Nick, another subject of the film, is back home from Columbia, where he was studying to become a priest when he was diagnosed with Schizophrenia. 

Nick brings a different perspective to the film. Through his story, we learn that many Kenyan men suffer from mental illness in silence, which supports the film’s premise that society and families in Kenya treat mental illness as a taboo subject, to be spoken about behind closed doors rather than addressed in public. 

When Nick disappears, Noella helps his family in their quest to find him which takes a toll on her own mental health. 

“What's Eating My Mind” is a raw, unfiltered look at what it takes to live with a mental illness in a country where families would rather pretend it doesn’t exist.  

What’s Eating My Mind is a production of LBx Africa in collaboration with Generation Africa and BBC Africa Eye. The film is Noella Luka’s directorial debut and was produced by Sam Soko(“Softie”), Don Edkins and Tiny Mungwe.

The film is streaming on BBC Africa Eye.