Is Kenya Ready for the Oscars?!

2012 has indeed been a rather patriotic year for Kenyans, at least through entertainment and sports. Let’s forget about politics for a few minutes!

First off, Camp Mulla set the ball rolling by getting nominated for a BET award. Sadly, they didn’t make it to the award show. However, they still put their names and Kenya’s name on the map. To keep the ball rolling, our President turned Ambassador Prezzo made us vote rampantly for the BBA final and the jury is still out on whether that election was rigged or not. Read about the loss here.

In the world of sports, Rudisha ngarishad the world records and set one of his own at the London Summer Olympics. Needless to say, it has been quite the patriotic year for Kenyans and then came the stupefying news that Nairobi Half Life is Kenya’s official submission for the Oscars.

Wow! A Kenyan movie might get nominated for an Oscar??? What??? How??? These were the questions I had in mind when I read the Ghafla! article. Of course these are the questions I had since I hadn’t watched the movie. But I’d participated in a team discussion at Ghafla! and I had some small insight.

So, of course after the Oscar article, I set out to watch the movie and see what all the hulabaloo was about. Albeit being slightly late for the movie by about 5 minutes, I caught up with the storyline which drew me in by the actors speaking in authentic sheng. I must admit I have watched a Bollywood movie and I recall suffering reading the sub-titles and watching at the same time. I’d like to know what fellows in Germany think about the sub-titles that run through most of the film. Read about the film’s German schedule here.

Another thing that stood out for me was the great use of local actors or thespians. I recognised most of the faces from plays I’ve watched at Phoenix and Alliance Française.

The storyline of this movie has been highlighted severally on Ghafla! but nothing prepares you for the great picture quality, soundtrack and good acting (yeah, none of that Tahamaki scary music and Nigerian movie witchraftness), it’s a downright relatable story of a young boy trying to make it in Nairobi. Read Adam’s review here.

So, in my view, is Kenya ready to win an Oscar??? Hell yeah! I truly wish the Oscars were a situation where we, the viewers, could vote. But as we all know, the Oscars are voted for by an Academy. But hey, don’t take Team Ghafla’s word for it, go and watch the movie. They recently extended its screening period in Kenya.

All in all, we at Team Ghafla truly feel patriotic having this great film and hope for the best in the voting. Fingers crossed.

Article by Suzanne