Cinema
Kolormask
Sao Gamba · 1986
Synopsis
John Litondo, a village boy whose studies the whole village has paid for, leaves to study abroad thanks to a scholarship. There he meets Eliza, a young white woman, whom he marries, and two children are born, Tobby and Susan. Having become a doctor, he returns to Kenya with his family to keep his promise to help his own people. A few years later, his parents demand that he take an African wife, a condition for being fully recognised by the community according to custom.
Context
Shot with Njuguna Gitau on cinematography, the film bears a title its author meant to be symbolic: it speaks of moving beyond the stereotypes attached to black and white skin, and the letter K replaces the C to Kenyanise the word, as Gitau reported in 2013. It is among the few local productions of the eighties, between the film evoking the reign of Idi Amin and Anne Mungai's first feature. The sources date it to 1986, except for a 2015 study that places it in 1983.
Who it is for
For those interested in the beginnings of a Kenyan cinema made by Kenyans, centred on a mixed couple.
Prizes and reception
An article on Peliplat regards it as the first widely recognised local film that Kenya has produced.
Sources for this page 4
The pages consulted to check this page.