Yesterday the High Court at Mlimani granted conservatory orders lifting the ban for Rafiki a Kenyan movie filmed, directed and written by Wanuri Kahiu. This came after Wanuri partnered with Katiba Institute and a team of lawyers and supporters to sue the government over the ban which made the film ineligible from qualifying for an Oscar’s submission entry 2019.
Wanuri’s name has been a buzz since the movie debuted at Cannes Film Festival 2018 earlier this year, being the first of its kind. Consequentially, Wanuri has been featured in acclaimed magazines and interviews locally and internationally with the likes of Vogue, Hard Talk on BBC.
A hero is not celebrated at home. The Kenya Film and Classification Board (KFCB) chaired by His Highness Ezekiel Mutua took to twitter to rage with a series of tweets about the High Courts’ ruling daring the theater owners to show the movie without the board’s approval. This is the same man who congratulated Wanuri on her success of the movie then banned it literally the next day. Are we dealing with a two faced killer of creativity? “It is a sad day and a great insult...” Read the Press statement from KFCB and I totally agree it is because someone is out on a mission to execute in-house creativity as we are choked with airing of non-local programs on TV. Can we deal with this first and sagaciously ban programs later? Is it too much to ask?
The board firmly believes that film should reflect the dominant values of the Kenyan people. Homosexuality does not qualify as such. The attempt to normalize homosexuality is therefore akin to air conditioning hell.
Rants and reactions on Twitter.
Meanwhile, the movie has been on a Pan-African Tour in countries such as South Africa and Ghana and gaining a lot of interest and admiration from global film festivals and entities such as Toronto Film Festival Industry (TFFI). So, it makes you wonder why not in Kenya-the origin of this very creativity?
“More than anything I wanted to tell a love story…where two girls must choose between love and safety”. Wanuri’s vision was to tell an African love story, a different story from a war, poverty and disease-stricken continent, an Afrobubblegum genre-coined by Wanuri herself to describe filmmaking that embodies fun fierce and frivolous representation of Africa. Consider this; it took her seven years to source for funding. Wanuri’s journey has been long and strenuous, let’s all give her a break and go watch the movie already! #PrideOnScreen
Watch the trailer here and do not forget...
