It's Us

I saw this film at the Rotterdam film festival 2014 (IFFR), where it was part of the Bright Future section. It is a colorful movie (no pun intended) presented in an interesting format, a bit confusing at first but becoming clear later on while getting used to the basic idea. This film is not directed to us outside Kenya, but actually targeted at local people there. It may very well succeed in driving the message home thanks to the format. We see a frame story (play in a play), jumping between these alternate forms. In addition we have a visualized bad dream (we learn in hindsight it was indeed a bad dream, not reality), the latter effectively working as a wake-up call. It served very well to start a timely counter reaction.

The frame story mixes conclusions spoken on a sort of stage (with audience), alternating with things happening in houses or on the street (with us as the only audience). The message at the end is positive, making clear how racial and tribal disagreements start very easily, but can be turned around when people speak out in time, preventing rumors from escalating before it is too late. In other words, this film is intentional propaganda in the positive meaning of the word. The constant humor that is added to liven up the story, will hold our attention all along, and avoids a dogmatic and didactic leftover impression too.

All in all, I don't think there is a better format to get the message across. The film was very well received by the festival visitors in Rotterdam, as it ranked 31th for the audience award (out of 200). The average IMDb score (7.7) is along the same line, though not based on enough votes (15) to draw a solid conclusion.