SHIMONI
Fiction and Drama | Running Time: 97 minutes
2022 / Swahili and English
Country: Kenya
Directed by: Angela Wanjiku Wamai
MENA Premiere
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A director, writer and editor. She studied film at La Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión in Cuba. In 2018, she wrote “I Had to Bury Cũcũ”, which premiered at the Clermont Ferrand International Short Film Festival. She was recently named Best Film Editor by the Women in Film Awards in Kenya.
ProducerWangechi Ngugi
CastJustin Mirichii, Sam Psenjen, Vivian Wambui, Muthoni Gathecha, Daniel Njoroge
ScriptwriterAngela Wanjiku Wamai
After seven years in prison, 35-year-old Geoffrey (Justin Mirichii) is released into the care of a Catholic priests’ compound in Shimoni, a small and sleepy village in rural Kenya. As we shall discover, Geoffrey knows this place - all too well - as “the pit”. A revered English teacher before his time inside, he now does his farmyard chores, attends church services as required and maintains a distance from other residents. Not that he ever goes anywhere else; some unnamed fear prevents him from stepping outside the gate. Then a man with a distinctive white patch of hair appears, terrifying him so much that he wets himself. Weru (Daniel Njoroge) has haunted his dreams for decades. Now he can’t face him. Film editor Angela Wanjiku’s gripping directorial debut explores the ways in which memory and emotion seize control of the body, which in turn may speak when words fail.