The Sunday News
Raisedon Baya
LAST year the film Escape caused an uproar when it was launched during the Zimbabwe International Film Festival (ZIFF). I remember the Women Filmmakers of Zimbabwe strongly condemning the film because they felt it portrayed women in wrong light, as mere sex objects. Many felt the film was taking women’s rights and their struggle two decades back. Storytellers felt the story itself was suspect as the film borders on soft porn — it had a lot of sex scenes that, frankly speaking, did not aid the development of the story — others argued that pornography does not need a good storyline.
And now, a year later, the film causes uproar as it gets stopped at the Zanzibar International Film Festival because according an unnamed official the film’s message spoke against the ethos of Zanzibar as a Muslim nation. Let’s pause for a minute and ask some critical questions: does the film and its message augur well with Zimbabwean ethos as both an African and Christian nation? Is the film Zimbabwean? Does it paint a Zimbabwean story?
What values does the film push?
To be honest, after I heard about the ban/stoppage in Zanzibar I went home and watched the film again — in the comfort of my bedroom. I still maintain what I said last year. That technically, the film is one of the best locally made films. The aesthetics are super beautiful. However, the story is weak and the film tries to compensate for this weakness with a lot of erotic scenes — sex scenes that honestly do not push the story forward. While I, and a lot other filmmakers out there, applaud seriously the collaborative effort between Joe Njagu and Agnieszka Piotrowska on the film, we cannot ignore the fact that Agnieszka’s ideas came out more strongly than Njagu’s — the film comes out more western than African. So if the dominant ideas in the film are Agnieszka’s what does it make of the film in terms of its identity? Is the film more Zimbabwean than Polish? Or more Polish than Zimbabwean? Does the fact that the cast, crew and locations were mostly Zimbabwean make the film Zimbabwean?
I would love to hear from academics, those that studied film — especially on what exactly is critical to the identity of a film? Is it the location it was filmed? Is it the crew and cast’s nationalities? Is it the dominant ideas in the film? This would really help me, and a lot of other confused beings, understand better. Personally, I really don’t want to believe that a Zimbabwean film was banned/censored in Zanzibar. I want to believe that certain ideas that are in the film, ideas that Zimbabwe is also uncomfortable with, were the ones Zanzibar found unpalatable. And if truth be told those are not Zimbabwean ideas.
The problem of identity with the film Escape could also be traced to one or two other successful “Zimbabwean” films that we all know were produced by white expatriates pushing western ideas and values and yet were labelled Zimbabwean films just to be politically correct. I leave this issue about film identity with one question: What exactly is a Zimbabwean movie or film?
On a different issue altogether let me take this opportunity to congratulate Emzinyama Dance Ensemble for winning the provincial Chibuku/Neshamwari Traditional Dance Competition last week. Ten traditional groups met at Manor Hotel and battled out for honours and the ticket to represent Bulawayo at the National Finals. Ezimnyama dazzled the judges with a well-choreographed performance that saw them come out at the top of the pile. Hard work pays. Congratulations and wishing you success at the finals.
