- Pre­miere –

Orig­i­nal­ly a play writ­ten by the direc­tor her­self, this film is a prod­uct of closed the­atres in pan­dem­ic times and it is a set­ting we are all more than famil­iar with: because of avoid­ing phys­i­cal con­tact the anger man­age­ment class has to take place in Zoom. The four very dif­fer­ent res­i­dents of Nairo­bi must explain to coun­sel­lor Rose which mis­de­meanours gave the courts the reason to send them to her. Their cap­ti­vat­ing char­ac­ters and sto­ries give us an unique insight into the life and var­i­ous social back­grounds entan­gled in this East African hub called Nairo­bi. Or in the words of writer and direc­tor Maï­mouna Jallow: “I have trav­elled to all parts of this con­ti­nent and whether I’m in Nairo­bi, Accra or Addis, I often feel like our cities are not made for the major­i­ty. They are forced to live in the cracks and con­stant­ly have to fight a system that should be there to serve them.”

Maï­mouna Jallow is a Nairo­bi-based sto­ry­teller, pro­duc­er, direc­tor, com­mu­ni­ca­tions con­sul­tant. In 2015 she co-found­ed Pos­i­tive­ly African – an organ­i­sa­tion that brings togeth­er a Pan-African net­work of activists, artists and aca­d­e­mics work­ing at the inter­sec­tion between art and social jus­tice. In 2016 and 2018, the organ­i­sa­tion held its flag­ship event, the Re-Imag­ined Sto­ry­telling Fes­ti­val in Nairo­bi, Kenya. Maï­mouna received the Sanaa The­atre Award for her adap­ta­tion of Lola Shoneyin’s The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives, which she toured inter­na­tion­al­ly. She is also the editor of Story Story, Story Come, a col­lec­tion of 12 re-imag­ined folk­tales from across Africa. In 2019 she co-pub­lished the chil­dren’s book I am the Colour of Honey. Her work has been fea­tured on the NYT, BBC, Forbes Woman Africa, and The East African, amongst others. Before her tran­si­tion into sto­ry­telling, Maimouna worked as a pro­duc­er and cor­re­spon­dent for the BBC World Ser­vice and man­aged com­mu­ni­ca­tions for Medécins Sans Fron­tières (MSF) in the Horn of Africa region. She holds a Mas­ters in African Lit­er­a­ture (SOAS).

Writer & Direc­tor: Maï­mouna Jallow
Cin­e­matog­ra­phy: Greg Kiwo
Mon­tage: Faith Musembi
Sound: Vickta Joe, Desmond Okeyo
Pro­duc­tion: Pos­i­tive­ly African, Sarah Mallia
Con­tact: positivelyafricanmedia@gmail.com

Cast: Mar­ti­na Ayoro, Eddy Kimani, Tana Kioko, Lorel­la Jowi, Mercy M. Mutisya, Wakio Mzenge