Chirisa, Bingwa’s Rwanda genocide movie snapped up by Netflix

Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday Life Reporter

The Tongai Chirisa and Charmaine Bingwa powered award-winning Rwanda genocide movie, Trees of Peace, is set to get more push after it was snapped up by streaming giant, Netflix, recently. 

Netflix is set to debut the film, which won the top three jury prizes at American Black Film Festival and earned the top jury award at Santa Barbara International Film Festival after it premiered there last year. 

In the film, Tongai Chirisa plays the character of  Francois and Charmaine Bingwa plays Jeanette. Trees of Peace is the story of four women who find unity, hope, and strength through one of the world’s darkest tragedies. 

Based on events during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, four women from different backgrounds and beliefs are trapped together in an underground room. As they contend with the fear of being found and fight a slow death from starvation, they are forced to reconcile their inner demons and put their differences aside to live through the day – for 81 days straight. 

The two Hollywood-based Zimbabwean stars are no strangers to success. Blockbuster roles have been coming in thick and fast for Chirisa, who in 2020 starred alongside Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti, Peter Gallagher, and J K Simmons in Hulu and Neon’s critically acclaimed romantic comedy Palm Springs. 

The film debuted at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and sold for a record breaking $22 million rights deal. Chirisa, who is represented by Domain Talent and Industry Entertainment, also starred opposite superstar actress and musician Janelle Monáe in Lionsgate’s thriller Antebellum. 

Meanwhile, Bingwa, along with Ben Foster, Gilbert Owuor and Mustafa Shakir recently joined the cast of upcoming Apple TV+ original thriller Emancipation, which stars Will Smith as a Civil War runaway slave named Peter.  

Bingwa will play Peter’s wife Dodienne in the film, inspired by the true story of “Whipped Peter,” an enslaved black man who emancipated himself from a southern plantation and joined the Union Army.