Film on Darfur angers Sudan

Josephat Githaiga, one of the “lucky few”, confirms that, indeed, it was so. Esther says that the supporting cast was picked according to how an individual resembled the inhabitants of Darfur. “One had to be a little taller than average, light skinned and with a narrow face,” recalls Esther, who adds that more than 100 men, women and children were picked for the parts.

All they had to do, according to Lucy Wambui, was lounge around the “village” and scream when “the men with guns came”. And for just that, they were well paid. Beatrice Wambui says they each received Sh700 a day for adults and Sh350 for children over the age of five.

Children under five were paid Sh150, which was given to their mothers. “I got Sh850 a day because of my young one,” says Beatrice, motioning to the sleeping eight-month-old child strapped onto her back. And it didn’t end there. For breakfast, members of the supporting cast were each offered one fried egg, two slices of buttered bread and tea with milk.

A sumptuous lunch came in the form of sukuma wiki (kales) and meat stew with ugali and a banana or orange, replete with a thoughtful bottle of water. In the evening, they were offered tea with mandazi after work, before being paid their daily wages and heading for home.

The dust at Ebenezer is now sludge and puddles of muddy water and the strangers have been gone for over two months but the good memories linger on among the residents. The film crew left behind enough memorabilia — a large water tank that the residents say will solve their perennial water problems, and remnants of the building materials used to put up the “hospital”.