 |
| Prynce Joel Okuyo (Manzi) in one of the scenes from the movie |
The festival had exhibited the best in
European and African cinema with movies such as In a Better World,
Limbo, Searching for Sugarman, No Time To Die, The Ugandan, Ezra and
Roho – Oscar-winning Lupita Nyong’o’s first movie from 2006. However, as
the festival closed, one movie stood out: Joel Karekezi’s Imbabazi: The
Pardon.
The Pardon is a Rwandan film about two
best friends, Manzi (Prynce Joel Okuyo) and Karemera (Wilson Egesa).
They seem inseparable until the forces of history and violence tear them
apart. Manzi is a Hutu and Karemera a Tutsi, but during the ethnic
clashes where thousands were massacred as the Hutu majority tried to
annihilate the Tutsi minority, Manzi had to choose between friendship
and family.
Manzi’s choice leads to his brutal
murder of Karemera’s father, sister and younger brother before his
friend’s eyes. Fifteen years later, news of Manzi’s release from prison
throws Karemera’s life into chaos. As the former friends search for
justice and absolution, they find themselves at odds with a society
eager to forget the past.
Unlike different films about the topic,
this comes out heavy with emotion and graphic scenes. The director chose
to tell this story by focusing on the characters rather than historical
events. The central relationship of the film tells the larger story of
the genocide.
“I drew on my own personal experiences
as a Rwandan and a genocide survivor to help the actors identify with
their characters. I wanted to bring this story to the screen in a
natural way so that the focus would be centred on the characters and
their journey. I worked with my sound team to recreate the auditory
environment of Rwanda on film. I also wanted to use Rwandan musical
elements in the soundtrack,” says Karekezi.
Karekezi adds that the story was inspired by real events that took place when he was only eight years old in 1994.
“My own father was killed. Afterwards, I
began to ask myself: if I knew someone who killed my father, would I be
able to forgive him? What makes forgiveness possible? Is forgiveness
necessary for a survivor?”
The film was shot in Uganda with mostly a
Ugandan crew and actors that include Michael Wawuyo, Felix Bwanika,
Matthew Nabwiso, Edwin Mukalazi and Brenda Ibarah.
The intriguing storyline in Karekezi’s
film is confirmation that the African continent has got some of the most
interesting stories to tell.
0 comments:
Post a Comment