THE LETTER is Kenya´s official submission to this year´s Academy Awards.
Karisa Kamango´s grandmother is accused by his cousin of witchcraft on social media, what leads him to leave the city of Mombasa for their village. There he discovers that she is not the only presumed “witch” and he discloses the social, cultural and economic complex behind those accusations. Christian belief is utilised for economic purposes, families and the community itself get divided and individuals get threatened by slandering.
We are following Karisa´s conversations and discoveries with his steadfast grandmother, quarrelling family, the villagers and Christian groups.
Maia Lekow is a Kenyan musician and filmmaker, known prominently as the front-woman of the band Maia & The Big Sky. She received an African Movie Academy Award for her song Uko Wapi in 2009 and was named a goodwill ambassador for UNHCR in 2013. She wrote the original score for THE LETTER which is her feature debut, co-directed and co-produced with her husband Christopher King.
Christopher King, Australian by birth, studied visual arts at the School of Creative Arts, University of Melbourne. He has worked as a filmmaker, cinematographer, editor and producer in Kenya for 13 years, having founded Circle & Square Productions with his wife Maia Lekow in Nairobi, 2009. He was awarded that same year an African Movie Academy Award for editing the feature film FROM A WHISPER (R: Wanuri Kahiu).
Director: Christopher King, Maia Lekow
Camera: Christopher King
Editing: Ricardo Acosta, Christopher King
Music: Maia Lekow, Ken Mhyr
Producer: Judy Kibinge, Peter Mudamba, Cynthia Kane
Distribution: Trigon Film, Christine Brönnimann, film@trigon-film.org
