Follow a 28 year old Filipino maid as she starts work for a dysfunctional family in Singapore. They all have their problems and bad habits, but they’re all human, just like us. Ilo Ilo perfectly captures the up and down emotions of everyday life in this family’s home and the immigrant experience in Singapore.
11 year old Mambi relies on her luck at gambling to pay off her father’s debts and save money for education in Where I Come From. However, as her father’s own gambling addiction gets worse, Mambi sacrifices her own dreams to protect her father.
The first thing I learned from watching Mambi was that English is spoken in Cameroon. All of the previous films I’ve seen from Cameroon were in French so I ignorantly assumed the whole country spoke French. The reality is that whilst around 80% of the country’s population are in French speaking regions, the 20% in the North, along the Nigerian border, speak English. The English speaking region has recently become a hotbed for film production, earning it the nickname ‘Collywood’ to differentiate itself from Nigeria’s neighboring Nollywood. Three of the industry’s films have even been bought up by Netflix: the award winning The Fisherman’s Diary, A Man for the Weekend, and Broken. Where I Come From might be hoping to join them soon.
Unfortunately the plot feels a bit too similar to a host of other African films that focus on poverty and promote education and stable family life such as Hand of Fate, Jebel Nyoka, and Shaina. Even though their situations all seem impossibly bleak, education is presented as a panacea for everything. It almost comes across as a government PSA because it feels so unrealistic given the protagonists’ circumstances. The promotion of gambling (and luck) as a solution also felt a bit off. Whenever Mambi gambles, inspirational, uplifting music starts as if it’s encouraging her to gamble. Promoting education and the luck of gambling in the same movie doesn’t match up.
Despite the cookie-cutter plot, Where I Come From is at least memorable for it’s brilliant lead performance from 11 year old Faith Fidel. She deservedly was nominated for Most Promising Actor at the African Movie Academy Awards last year and should be an actor to look out for in the future. It’s also worth noting that 95% of the film’s crew were under 30, so look out for more from Takong Delvis and his team in future.
Director Rungano Nyoni broke into the art-house film world in 2017 with her debut film, I Am Not A Witch. Her second feature, On Becoming Guinea Fowl, builds on her first and puts Zambia on the film map. It’s a chance for you to explore inter-generational trauma and the culture of silence with an anti-patriarchal lens rooted in Zambia.
You might be wondering what a guinea fowl is and what this film has got to with them. Don’t worry I’ll help to answer these questions.
Firstly, a guinea fowl is a bird that belongs to the same order as chickens, turkeys, and pheasants. The helmeted guinea fowl is the most famous of the guinea fowl family, as it has been introduced as a domesticated bird around the world, after originating in Africa. It’s iconic because of it’s big spotted body and helmeted head, which isn’t too far from the Missy Elliot costume that Shula wears in the opening scene of this movie, when she finds her dead uncle laying by the side of the road whilst bumping the Lijadu Sisters.
Secondly, as referenced in one of the many flashbacks to a younger Shula, we learn that guinea fowls are highly valued in the African Savannah as an alarm for incoming predators. They are the first to send the alarm when lions, leopards, and other predators threaten them and their fellow preyed upon comrades. This is highlighted by director Rungano Nyoni as it becomes a metaphor for Shula – the first, and only one in her family to have called the alarm on her recently deceased uncle’s predatory behavior.
Shula is not just sending the alarm for her close family anymore, as the film shows her grow close with her community; her cousins from different social backgrounds, the women in her family, and the young and poor family her uncle left behind. Like with the communities that bond in trauma/injustice in director Rungano Nyoni’s previous feature, I Am Not A Witch, and Ousmane Sembene’s Moolaade, Shula emphasizes the strength of women. She also reveals the frailty of the men in charge to show that it is within their power to overturn Zambian society into a classless matriarchy.
What Next?
As mentioned above, Moolaadeand I Am Not A Witchare two great places to start for more African films which also feature communities building to overcome the patriarchy. For Indian films with a similar theme – community theme, check out Monsoon Weddingand Parched.
Or for alternative media, follow Kirabo’s quest to find her mother in Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s novel, The First Woman.
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