Like many young men of his country, Joanny travelled from Burkina Faso to the more affluent Ivory Coast in search of work and a better life. For young Burkinabe men this emigration is a ritual and rite of passage—but Joanny never returned. Years later his brother, Burkinabe filmmaker Michael K. Zongo, decides to retrace his steps. Travelling on the same bus his 14-year-old brother took many years ago, he tries to find answers to the questions that have tormented him for years: How did Joanny live? Why did he die? Trying to hold onto his own memories of his brother, he pieces together a bigger story through the many other Burkinabe he meets in the Ivory Coast, who have all found that their promised new life holds a very different reality. Espoir Voyage is a journey to find a greater understanding of the issues of departure, memory, loss and inter-African emigration.