A screen-grab of a scene from the short film Watu Wote. PHOTO | COURTESY
Early last week, we broke the news of Watu Wote, an East African short film nominated at the Oscars.
As you may know, such Oscar nominated short films and documentaries literally become hard to trace after the show, however, Watu Wote will be landing in Kampala even before the awards.
Watu Wote is a film, which follows events that arise after terrorists attack a bus heading to Mandera, a small town in North Eastern Kenya along the Somalia boarder.
Based on a true story, the 22-minute short film shows what happens on the bus when the attack is foiled, as Muslim passengers refuse to identify Christian passengers following an order by the attackers.
Directed by German filmmaker Katja Benrath, Watu Wote is one of the many films that were selected for the second edition of the Ngalabi Short Film Festival that kicks off at the Goethe Zentrum in Kamwokya this Friday.
The film will be screening alongside curated Ugandan titles as well as other countries.
The Ugandan titles will include Nectar, a film about a man that wakes up in the middle of the night to gather courage to kill his wife, however, gets the shock of his life while at it.
The film produced by actress Doreen Mirembe has enjoyed tremendous success on the festival circuit getting nominated in most of their award shows.
Cinematographer Ali Loukman’s directorial The Bad Mexican which follows a film maker whose day is ruined after getting a stomach upset thanks to some bad Mexican food he tasted is too one to look out for thanks to the delivery by his team and cast that included Prynce Joel Okuyo and Adnan Ssenkumba.
But it’s The Surrogate that dares, a film about a girl that gets pregnant from a one-night stand only to realize that the man responsible is gay.
Other films include Amin’s Boat, Mtindo, Soko Sonko, The Last Breathe, Black and White, Akarwa and Maria among others.
Most of the films selected for this year’s edition transverse topics and genres – besides the lack of animations, documentary and puppetry, the Ngalabi selection takes care of other sub genres like action, comedy, drama and science fiction among others.
The festival starts on Friday and will go on until Sunday with panel discussions involving directors and actors.
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