The Last Boundary is a short film. PHOTO/COURTESY
Hakim Zziwa surprised Ugandans when he produced his debut film, an action drama, Building 62.
It was a gritty film about a girl who discovers that her father left many secrets behind but has no time to dwell over it. She has to save her life first.
The film got many naysayers paying attention to local films once again thanks to the amazing job by the actors.
When Zziwa’s Boundary Mwisho was announced, it was not surprising that it was highly anticipated. That is because Zziwa today is that kind of filmmaker, people look out for.
Boundary Mwisho premiered on YouTube on December 28, 2024.
For this film, Zziwa did what many fresh filmmakers do for their first projects, work with the people they are comfortable with. For his first project, he worked with Maureen ‘Mona’ Nankya, Allan Katongole (Sanyu) and Abdul Kinyenya, a dancer with Tabu Flo and one of the founders of Batalo, a dance foundation.
For many that may not know, Zziwa used to be a dancer alongside Kinyenya in Tabu Flo and he probably did some of his final performances at the National Theatre in 2014.
Working with Kinyenya and Katongole, Zziwa was facing a new territory, film, with people he was comfortable with. Remember that before he ventured into acting, Katongole was a dancer, appearing in his brother Michael Ross’ videos.
For Boundary Mwisho, he still chose to work with dancers as actors, bringing back Katongole and Kinyenya, he brought onboard Rosemary Atim, a choreographer and a member of the group Roz, Viccy and Cathy or RVC.
They were joined by media personality Zion Kente and rising actor fresh from the Africa Monologue Challenge Mark Agume.
Boundary Mwisho follows a story of a doctor who finds himself in a tight spot when he is given a package to deliver but takes it for his own. It is a moral story of choosing the loved ones over a job, money and almost life itself.
It is a story around illicit trade of organs, when a young doctor is asked to deliver a kidney, he obliges but has a lot going on. While in transit, he is contacted by a nurse friend telling him his sister’s condition is worsening thus, they need an immediate decision if they are to save her life.
The sister needs an immediate kidney transplant.
Probably that is the time he changes his mind and decides to help a loved one as opposed to delivering this package to some unruly group.
This sets off a number of events, disorganising people who had sent him, getting into a number of action sequences, annoying more people and in the process, giving viewers a good watch for at least 20 minutes.
What Zziwa delivers is something that could be a compelling story given more time and pitching. There are many edibles with the story, it is believable and many of the times it makes you think about yourself in the situation and what you would probably do differently.
However, there are also many loose ends, such as why deal with the doctor for delivery purposes if he is not the person with the package in the first place. How long had the doctor been involved in these kinds of dealings? Why did it take him so long to realise the sister needed a kidney.
Besides many of these though, the short film feels like a pitch for something bigger, probably the director wants to see ways of turning it into something bigger, maybe a TV series or a feature film.
But the most important thing is that he manages to tell this aspect of our health care, organ trafficking without being preachy and stepping on toes, which is something he cannot avoid if he turns it into a series or a feature.
