A scene from Janani: The Last Stand
The Uganda Film Festival, the 2025 edition has been on since the beginning of last week. This particular edition comes when the local film industry is going through a transition; this is not an ordinary transition, the industry is moving between financial circles of having it all to having nothing.
From the past years where most filmmakers were working on commissioned shows from funders such as MultiChoice Uganda, to date, where they have to mainly use their own resources to make things happen, both the quality and type of stories told have greatly changed. For instance, the films being made are fewer than those that came out in 2022 and 2023.
This has however, created room for many new producers, directors and actors; most of the categories are dominated by new faces, some of whom are celebrating their first roles. Thus, in the nominees this year, names such as Nana Kagga, Richard Mulindwa or Joseph Ssebaggala are absent, not because they made bad films, they simply did not make films. But that does not mean there are no good films in the mix; there are a number of amazing films and many of them are screening throughout this week until June 5. These are some of the five films in cinemas you do not need to miss.
Nkinzi
This film gives us two things: Uganda’s youngest cast and one of the biggest snubs ever seen in the local award season. But let’s talk about the film for a minute; Nkinzi is about a girl called Nkinzi, who runs away from home in the belief that she’s not loved. She ends up on the Kampala streets where she is adopted by another child, Junior, who has been living on the streets with his little sister Princess. The three survive on the streets while Junior is trying to keep his little sister calm by telling her their mother will one day come for them and at the same time helping Nkinzi reunite with her parents.
On the part of the snub, it is hard finding a film where one actor owned a role and went on to carry an entire story on their back like Junior’s character owns the screen, yet, for some reason, he is not nominated for any acting accolade something that has people talking after watching the film.
Kimote
The film is almost a subtle documentation of the barkcloth with the same name. Kimote is one of the few films directed by a producer who has been around for a while. Hassan Mageye’s film is about a backcloth maker insisting on conserving the art and tradition of making backcloth at a time when it was being overtaken by modernity. On a side note, Kimote is also a love story of two lovers whose relationship is forbidden by many people around them. This is a relationship between our protagonist and a rape victim who is being blamed for what befell her. Thus, it is a story of this boy saving a culture and fighting for a love that is believed to be forbidden. Kimote and Nkinzi are some of the most nominated films this year.
Janani: The Last Stand
Most Ugandans probably know who Archbishop Janani Luwum is. He was the archbishop of the Church of Uganda from 1974 to 1977 and one of the most influential leaders of the modern church in Africa. But then he died in mysterious ways, an accident that has been dismissed with people arguing that his body was riddled with bullets thus, there was foul play. Janani: The Last Stand tries to re-imagine the last days of the cleric, with a lot of creative liberty, the film shows a meeting between Idi Amin, then president and the cleric during the last moments of his life. Since very little is known about the man’s final days, Matt Bish, the director, gets to use his imagination based on what Uganda was going through at the time. The story not only tends to create some sort of closure for different Ugandans, but it also humanises Amin from the savage he’s usually portrayed to a man who had his fears and wanted to be loved. Janani: The Last Stand was supported by UCC’s Content Support Programme thus did not qualify for nominations.
Fatal
Produced by model-turned-actor and now producer, Tony Acer, the film focuses on a couple whose marriage is breaking apart because the husband cannot perform as well as he used to. Thinking he was being bewitched, he goes after the family of his stepmother, only to later learn that he had the whole thing wrong, but he learns what is eating him when it is too late for him to be saved. Fatal is nominated for various awards, including Best Supporting Actor, Best Feature Film and Best Screenplay, among others.
Speak
This is an imaginative film which follows a village devastated by a virus, and many have lost their speaking and hearing ability. Then a girl is born with the mythical ability to speak and hear. The film is one of those out-of-the-box films, inspired by American TV drama, SEE but they do a lot to own the story and make it theirs.
