Codelli(2017)

Codelli is a docudrama that resurrects a forgotten chapter of cinema history. In 1914, Slovenian inventor Baron Anton Codelli and filmmaker Hans Schomburgk ventured to Togo to shoot what may be Africa's first live-action film—a project that possibly inspired Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan novel. The film traces the expedition's legacy through the eyes of Codelli's descendants and actor Primož Bezjak as they recover fragments of the original work from archives in Togo and Berlin. Using green screen technology and 600 museum photographs, the filmmakers reconstruct fifteen scenes from the lost footage, bringing Codelli's pioneering vision back to life and revealing how one adventurer's ambition shaped early cinema.