Lessons from ‘Kizingo’: How to make an award-winning movie

As the curtains fall on the excitement around the recently held Riverwood Awards, it is important that we talk about matters of form, and not just content. The two have an undeniable link but having watched some of the movies submitted for the awards, it is clear that within film making circles, form is not getting the attention it deserves.

The Saturday Nation decided to dissect the Riverwood Awards winning feature film, Kizingo, by Furet Film productions to understand just what it got right, and what budding film makers can learn from it. An hour-long Swahili movie (it has English subtitles), it was not by accident that it took first place and has also been screened in festivals as far away as India.

Kizingo revolves around two primary school children who come across a stash of stolen money and take it home to hide it. Unfortunately, they are sighted by the thieves who hid the money, who then employ all sorts of tricks and tactics to get the money out of the children’s house and back into their hands. What follows is the stuff comedy is made of. The movie reminded us somewhat of Home Alone, the 1990 Christmas comedy featuring then child star Macauley Caulkin.

Overall, there were four key things that worked about Kizingo:

1. Good sound and a harmonious sound track

It comes at you right from the beginning, crystal clear sound, muted music that blends in harmoniously with the events in the movie. The background instrumentals had a beat with something of an African flavour, which worked to centre the movie. The music was harmonious and suitable to the story and not jarring. In the scary parts, the drum beats were loud and pronounced, the sound from the wind instruments eery.

In the more action packed parts such as where the  children were being chased through the forest, the sound was fast moving and urgent.

While the sound worked, film makers could go the extra mile and consider featuring actual songs by local musicians.

This might look like it might pose an additional expense (and we do know that making movies is expensive!) but if they work with some of the better known musicians with large followings, they will end up getting more publicity for their films, and hence end up selling even more tickets than they originally might have done. Locally, some of the best movies we have seen featuring local songs were from the SAFE Kenya repertoire — Ndoto za Elibidi, Ni Sisi and Watatu.

The ones that come to mind on the international scene that illustrates how music and film can collaborate with great success, were African American movies of the 90s Waiting to Exhale, Soul Food and Boomerang, where individual songs from the sound tracks not only heavily helped in the marketing of these movies, but went on to top the billboard charts and have since become classics. 

2. Beautiful location and cinematography

Lush green forests, light streaming through the trees, dark shadows from the thick foliage. The slender bamboo stalks, their long slim leaves, the brown canopies under the heavy mass of branches. Capturing beautiful and scenic shots such as these are the touches of poetry that elevate a movie from  random footage to a work of art.

Kizingo also had some really good shots, such as when Soni scrambles to pick up her bag and accidentally forgets one book, the camera slides from the book on the ground to the approaching thieves.

It is a myth that finding good locations and settings comes at a heavy price. Set in a rural area, Kizingo makes use of the rustic aesthetic to full effect. We imagine that this location also meant that the filming costs were much lower than they might have been had the movie been shot in a city or uptown area. This aside, if you want to get an example of how cinematography can really move a film from the profane to the profound, make sure to watch Moonlight, this years Oscar winning film.  

3. Brilliant actors

You will notice that we don’t just say good actors, we use the word brilliant.

The cast in this movie was so good that we’re already eager to see more of them on our screens. The two mischievous children Soni (Fatuma Ali) and Johni (Jakessuzanne Kibukosya Israel), Roba the roguish boda boda rider (Mohammed Juma Said), the wolfish thief Kauzi (Ali ‘Mchokozi’ Shahibu), the garrulous farm hand Mwakazi (Julian Mwanzele Tindo), the exuberant mali mali vender (Isaya Evans) and the stern Mama Johni (Pretty Mutave), all put their hearts and souls into the production.

They allowed you to feel the emotions coursing through them — from the fear Robba had that Kauzi would kill him for losing the money, to the happiness of Mwakazi on seeing the children return from school. The child actors, too, were remarkably un-selfconscious. Ensure that you get good actors and you will find it easier to keep drawing audiences back to your productions. 

4. A good script and a storyline with life

This aspect of Kizingo crowned it and made it stand out from the other productions nominated. It is a simple film focusing on every day life, not trying to give any moral lessons or express any themes. The script was well written and true to life; seen through the flowing realistic and life-like dialogue. This was a very important part of why the movie worked. You might have the best technology, the most amazing cast, and all the props and locations in the world but if the script is bad, the entire movie will fall flat. Humor further brought the story to life with the use of word play, comical characters such as Mwakazi and situational comedy.

One memorably funny scene was when Robba the boda boda rider comes by the house to drop Soni’s book and she is called out to thank him. We see the wordless communication take place between Robba and Soni , when he runs a finger