Koffi, a young Ivorian trumpeter, arrives in Montreal with nothing but the legacy of his father to guide him. Lost between the city's noise and the silence of his past, he must confront his roots to finally find his own voice.

Production Zion Lipstein-Saffer (Production Disamare) Samuel Caron (Telescope Films)

Director Will Niava

Screenplay Will Niava Kristelle Laroche

Artistic Direction Alpha Estifanos

Director of Photography Harley Francis

Editor Thomas Bellefleur Will Niava Joshua Rosenbaum

Sound Zachary Scholes Nataq Huault

Music Hichem Khalfa

With Ange-Eric Nguessan Alexis Belhumeur Kasongo Kalombo

JAZZ INFERNAL breathes like memory itself. It’s exhilarating, haunting, alive with the tension of not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Life in its raw complexity, where comedy and tragedy dance together in the same heartbeat. This is the emotion I want to leave trembling in your chest by the final frame.

I'm drawn to those first moments, the sacred vulnerability of arrival. When your skin feels too thin for the icy Montreal winter and your heart too loud to forget the past.

About 13 years ago, I was that young soul stepping off the plane from Ghana. Naïve, hungry, a storyteller with empty notebooks and eyes wide as dinner plates. I threw myself into the city's embrace, let it drag me into situations that could have shattered everything. But somehow, here I am, translating those raw, terrifying, beautiful misadventures into this film.

My father's passing during the creation of JAZZ INFERNAL became the earthquake that cracked the film's foundation open, revealing depths I never planned to explore. What began as fish out of water comedy transformed into something so sacred. Through this film, I held conversations with absence. Scenes that once made me laugh now made me weep. Music stopped being background noise and became the only language grief understood. Notes carrying what words couldn't hold.

JAZZ INFERNAL became my sanctuary, my healing ground. In the act of creation, I found my breath again. This is what it means to be an artist! This is what cinema is all about. To transform pain into beauty, confusion into clarity, silence into song. I've already received everything this journey had to give me. Now, sharing it feels like offering a piece of my soul. A gift born from the deepest places of becoming.

Bon cinéma, Will Niava

Toronto Int. Film Festival (TIFF), Canada | 2025

Sundance International Film Festival, USA | 2026