Film Review: Why You Should Check Out Nairobi’s Latest Gangster Film

Nairobi Half Life opens tomorrow at the Planet Media Cinemas at the Westgate Mall. The film is a brilliant depiction of a Nairobi some of us might not know exist. And the ones who do, might be too embarassed to admit they do.

The opening shot sets up the main character, an aspiring actor who has to make do with selling bootleg films, the closest thing to his dream back in the village. When the opportunity to travel to the big city arises, he takes it enthusiastically takes it up. This is where we start seeing Mwas’ naivety and the brilliance of Joseph Wairimu’s acting.

He leads a cast of brilliant actors, standout characters being Daddy M (Mburu Kimani), who I wish had more screen time. There’s never been any doubt about Abubakar Mwenda’s skill and you can see why in his role as Dingo, the don of the Nairobi underground. Mugambi Nthiga’s role needed a brave and fairly unihibited guy to pull off, and one of his scenes might inspire some debate.

Another scene that I’d like to see reactions to is Khanji’s scene with Mwas in his shop. The casting for all these roles were pretty good, especially the Gaza crew, made up of Olwenya Maina as Mwas’ mentor and his jeshi, Paul Ogola’s Mose, Anthony Ndungu’s Waf, Johnson Gitau Chege’s Kyalo.

The film locations are mostly concentrated at Gaza, which is an actual place in Grogon. This is where Mwas ends up after ending up on the wrong end of Nairobi, after an interesting welcome to the city. Besides, dealing in stolen parts, Mwas also prepares for a play, which a montage intercutting between Mwas two lives.

The score is beautiful. Even the parts with songs we already know were interesting because they had been customized for the particular scenes. Alai K is my favourite male vocalist from Africa and his work on the film stands out. His bits worked so well with the film, especially at the end. He is one artiste who needs to blow up.

Serah Mwihaki, Potash and Samuel Munene under the supervision of Billy Kahora (2012 Caine Prize nominee) did a great job with the script. I went into the film thinking it would have enough English to disqualify it for the Foreign Language Oscar category, but the film is basically 98% sheng. Meaning, the film is now eligible, the submission deadline for which is next week.

Thank God for the subtitles, it’s some very concentrated sheng which actually adds some flavour to the film. You have never seen sheng this poetic. The only thing I didn’t like about the film are the crowds who kept staring at the actors at almost all the outdoor scenes.

The film shows at the Planet Media Cinemas at Westgate. The Friday 7:30 p.m. show is unfortunately sold out, but you can catch the 3:20 p.m. show tomorrow. You can also watch it over the weekend and throughout the next week at those times.