KENYA: Critics call Kenya's latest feature film - Nairobi Half Life, a 'game changer'

Record ID: 362358

  • Title: KENYA: Critics call Kenya's latest feature film - Nairobi Half Life, a 'game changer'
  • Date: 26th September 2012
  • Summary: NAIROBI, KENYA (RECENT) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) NAIROBI HALF LIFE DIRECTOR, TOSH GITONGA SAYING: "We had to really go into the spaces we are talking about and not try to recreate or build. And that means we were going to deal with a lot of, say, challenges, of a lot of people who had not seen a camera crew in their midst and are wondering what's going on. That wa
  • Embargoed: 11th October 2012 13:00
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  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Reuters ID: LVA9NHG8GCJTVAT436XFO0EC04V1
  • Story Text: Kenya's latest locally produced and directed film, Nairobi Half Life is a story about dreaming of a better life. A young aspiring actor moves to Nairobi where he hopes to make it big but gets sucked into the dank streets of the city's seedy crime underworld, at the same time pursuing an acting career.
    Critics are calling Kenya's latest feature film - Nairobi Half Life, a 'game changer'.
    The story about Mwas, a young man who leaves his village and drunken father to pursue an acting career in the capital Nairobi was released to cinema late in August and has sold out tickets to showings across the capital ever since.
    The gritty tale of Nairobi's crime underworld and the people who survive in it, pushes the boundaries set by previous Kenyan films, depicting the city's downtown alleys in all their sewage and crime infested glory.
    The film was directed by 31-year-old Tosh Gitonga, an up and coming Kenyan film maker. This was his first feature-length film, having worked in the production of a local TV series and in advertising.
    "It's that untold story that we all know. Whether you live in an upmarket area, whether you live in the lowest market area, or in the slums, it is that Nairobi that we all know. That we all relate to. And that is what Nairobi half life is. We brought it on the screen for you., the life that some of us lead and what drives us into the circumstances. Like the story of Mwas. All he wanted to do was to come and be an actor, and look where he ended up. It quickly becomes survival," Gitonga said in an interview.
    The crew had to interact with actual criminals to accurately convey the speed and precision of spare-part theft.
    Gitonga says it is just one of the reasons the film is so different because it does not "sugar-coat" any real life situations.
    "The authenticity part. It was one thing that I was not going to compromise on. It had to be authentic. The sheng changed every day - I went with it. I would go; I did a lot of research. I went to... are they called pick pocketers? The guys who steal spare parts… I met them. It took a lot of time for this guy to meet me but he finally did and explained to me the whole process. I wanted it to be that authentic," he said.
    With a taste for the raw and no budget to close off streets and hire a large number of extras, all the scenes were shot in real life scenes, and that had its setbacks.
    "We had to really go into the spaces we are talking about and not try to recreate or build. And that means we were going to deal with a lot of, say, challenges, of a lot of people who had not seen a camera crew in their midst and are wondering what's going on. That was one of the most painful things. Like, I would edit a cut the way I want it and then you find there is someone staring into the camera and you have to change it," Gitonga said.
    Nairobi Half Life was produced through a workshop held jointly by One Fine Day Films and Ginger Ink - both outfits whose aim is to promote film making in Africa.
    The idea and the storyline came from an entirely Kenyan team of script writers. The entire cast was sourced from a vibrant local acting community.
    Leading man - Mwas, came from a city slum with close to no acting experience but Gitonga says it was almost too easy to decide on giving him the part because he was such a natural. In the film, Mwas goes from being a naive country boy, cutting his teeth doing odd jobs in downtown Nairobi to survive, to being a hardcore criminal while still maintaining a likeable character as an aspiring actor with big dreams.
    Filming took about four weeks and pre-production took three weeks, in which time Gitonga had to find his cast, his locations and prepare to start shooting, an experience he described as "hectic".
    "For me the biggest challenge was balancing; its like seven years of film school, doing, on the go. You know, first you go to school, and then you go to work. So here I am; school and working at the same time, because what you are doing is the product of what is going to be put out there," he said.
    The language of the film is mainly "Sheng", Swahili based slang influenced by a rich mix of cultures and languages spoken in Nairobi and used mostly by ghetto youth.
    In the setting of the film - Nairobi's dangerous downtown, Sheng evolves daily.
    "The sheng was... learning the sheng was not quite a challenge, but now, making it believable, making it... owning it, being, talking as if... I mean its a new word you are speaking for the first time, and you have to look as if your usual words that you speak everyday, that was the hardest part. Another challenging part was guns, I mean , I had never toughed a gun before," said Maina Olwenya wilfred, who plays Oti, the thug that introduces Mwas to the seedy underworld.
    Nairobi Half Life was well received at the Durban International Film Festival in July and is headed to London, Berlin and Los Angeles for more.
    "Nairobi Half Life is a crime drama and spices here and there of comedy. It is not easy to fuse such genres in one script and execute them well and Nairobi Half Life has done that. For once we are seeing a big production team, we are seeing artists, actors who really know what they are doing, I mean it was getting the best of the best and putting them together so definitely this is a yardstick for Africa," Wilfred said.
    The film has also been entered as Kenya's candidate for the Oscar's foreign film category nomination, a milestone for the country's film industry.
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