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osprey_archerI’ve been meaning to see Wanuri Kahui’s Rafiki ever since it came out in 2018. The gifsets all look absolutely gorgeous (particularly the scene where the girls go to a nightclub and paint their faces with glow-in-the-dark paint), and a movie about two girls who fall in love in modern Kenya intrigued me.
But I kept putting it off, because I knew that the film tackles homophobia in Kenyan society, which is such that the film had a difficult time getting the required one-week screening in its home country to qualify for submission at the Academy Awards. I figured that if this is the fate of the film itself, the characters inside the film wouldn’t fare much better, and I am often not in the mood to watch a film braced for an explosion of homophobic violence.
The romance is very sweet: the glow-in-the-dark paint scene, the abandoned van that Kena turns into a sort of love nest before she and Ziki spend the night there. But the sense of low-key dread does hang over it. You know that they’re going to get caught sooner or later and everything’s going to get blown up.
That happens near the end of the film, when the girls have run away to the van again, and get caught there. They’re beaten up and then taken to a police station to be booked for homosexual activity. (“Which one of you is the man?” leers a policewoman, giggling with her colleague.) Afterward, their families separate them, and when Kena tries to seek out Ziki, Ziki rejects her. Ziki’s parents are sending her abroad, and Ziki is so disheartened by what has happened that she sees no point in talking to Kena.
But the film ends a few years later, when they are reunited, with the suggestion that they may be able to rekindle their love after all.
The movie is beautifully shot. It offers a fascinating glimpse of Kenya, a well-developed aesthetic of its own, and a love story that is sweet despite the many challenges it faces. But boy! Not a relaxing viewing experience! Save it for when you want something to give your heart a workout.
But I kept putting it off, because I knew that the film tackles homophobia in Kenyan society, which is such that the film had a difficult time getting the required one-week screening in its home country to qualify for submission at the Academy Awards. I figured that if this is the fate of the film itself, the characters inside the film wouldn’t fare much better, and I am often not in the mood to watch a film braced for an explosion of homophobic violence.
The romance is very sweet: the glow-in-the-dark paint scene, the abandoned van that Kena turns into a sort of love nest before she and Ziki spend the night there. But the sense of low-key dread does hang over it. You know that they’re going to get caught sooner or later and everything’s going to get blown up.
That happens near the end of the film, when the girls have run away to the van again, and get caught there. They’re beaten up and then taken to a police station to be booked for homosexual activity. (“Which one of you is the man?” leers a policewoman, giggling with her colleague.) Afterward, their families separate them, and when Kena tries to seek out Ziki, Ziki rejects her. Ziki’s parents are sending her abroad, and Ziki is so disheartened by what has happened that she sees no point in talking to Kena.
But the film ends a few years later, when they are reunited, with the suggestion that they may be able to rekindle their love after all.
The movie is beautifully shot. It offers a fascinating glimpse of Kenya, a well-developed aesthetic of its own, and a love story that is sweet despite the many challenges it faces. But boy! Not a relaxing viewing experience! Save it for when you want something to give your heart a workout.
