RAFIKI

Kenya, 2018, 83 minutes, Colour.
Samantha Mugatsia, Sheila Munyiva, Neville Misati.
Directed by Wanuri Kahiu.

During 2018, there was considerable controversy about this film. It is a Kenyan film, from a country where homosexuality and activity is against the law. There were complaints in Kenya itself and objections for the film being shown at the Cannes film Festival. In fact, it was.

This is a brief film. Its narrative is fairly straightforward, two young women, the attraction, the relationship, their time together. And, it is also fairly straightforward in the reaction of people to the relationship, immediate abhorrent reactions, disapproval from parents, gossip from neighbours, denunciations from pulpits.

Samantha Mugatsia is the central character, Kena, a student who gets very good marks enabling her to move beyond thinking that she would be a nurse to the possibilities of her being a doctor. She is close to her mother, works in a store for her father who has separated and has a new wife who is expecting a child. He is also standing for local politics.

Sheila Munyiva is the other central character, Ziki, from a wealthy family, her father also standing for local politics. She hangs out with girlfriends who enjoy singing and dancing in the streets. Kena is attracted to her, meets her, they spend time together, are in the church when same-sex relationships are attacked. The mothers of both women are upset by the relationship.

There are other characters in the film including a young man, his girlfriend and her gossip mother, a good friend to Kena.

While the film has a message about same-sex relationships, it does not preach but rather makes its case by portraying its characters with sympathy and dramatising the relationship so that audiences can reflect on issues, and nuances in interpreting principles.

1. A story from Kenya? International story?

2. The settings, the city, homes, shops, the streets? Affluent areas? Poorer areas? A 21st-century city? The musical score?

3. A film about relationships? The two young women? In themselves? Realisation of the orientation, the attraction, the meetings, affection, sexual? The consequences for each? Secrecy? The influence of their mothers? The respective fathers and their political ambitions?

4. The personalities of each woman? Kena, her work, in the shop, friendship with Blaksta, seeing Ziki and the girls dancing, the approach? Her ambitions to be a nurse? Good marks, the possibility of becoming a doctor? Her bond with her mother, divorced? Her bond with her father, the store, politics? His new marriage? The wife being pregnant?

5. Ziki, wealthy, the mother, political father? The girlfriends?

6. The visit to the church, the preacher, earlier sermons, his preaching against same-sex relationships, quoting the bible? The denunciations? Two girls holding hands in the church, the leaving?

7. Blakta, friendship, the bike rides? His work? Support of Kena? Her treatment of him? His girlfriend, the shop, her gossiping mother?

8. Everybody knowing, the denunciations, shunning the girls? The parents’ reactions? Kena and her going off to study? The Ziki Going to England?

9. The passing of time, Kena and her accomplishments? Her return home? The future?