Editor

AFRICAN DIASPORA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ADIFF


Abila (14) lives in one of the most miserable slums in Africa. His girlfriend Shiku belongs to a different tribe, as the result of which he is not really allowed to fraternize with her. And then one drunken night his father gambles away his own soul.

You could say that the location is the real protagonist of this film. All African cities have enormous and often depressing slums, but the Kibera district in Nairobi can hardly be called a district at all. It's a muddy ocean of slums in which more than one million people live and battle for survival.

When Abila finds out that his father's soul has been stolen by a Nyawawa, a female spirit, despite the hostility of the surroundings, he and Shiku set off together to save the soul of Abila's father.

Soul Boy emerged from a workshop and production support by the famous German director Tom Tykwer resulting in the film having a very professional look. The camera work is top notch. As a result, Soul Boy is a sparkling and inspirational film like no other.

A cooperative effort between Germans and Kenyans, Soul Boy tells the charming magically realist story of a boy, his family and his girl friend in the Kibera ghetto of Nairobi. Far from being a miserable depiction of life in the ghetto, the film narrates a story of fascinating diversity that unfolds adroitly, exposing us to a very creative set of people. Abila (Samson Odhiambo) discovers one morning that his father has lost his soul. He then undertakes seven challenges, giving his all to find the cure to his father illness. Each of these seven challenges test Abila in a different way and each one of them demands from him and his friend Shiku a great deal of imagination, creativity and heart. Kenya/Germany, 2010, 61mins in English and Swahili with English subtitles, Hawa Eusmann, dir.