Kenyan Film starring actress Brenda Wairimu and Tirath Padam has been selected as the opening film and to be in competition at the Golden Dhow at Zanzibar International Film Festival.
This comes after it was selected to be in competition at the Durban International Film Festival.
The Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) is an annual film festival that takes place in Durban, South Africa.
It is believed to be the oldest and largest film festival in Africa and presents over 200 screenings celebrating the best in South African, African and international cinema.
Most of the screenings are either African or South African premieres. The festival offers many competition sections and some of the prizes have cash attached.
The film premiered on the 29th of November 2018 and had been anticipated to be one of the biggest films ever.
After its launch, the film bagged 13 nominations in the prestigious Kalasha Awards. Some of which are: best lead actress/actor, best-supporting actress/actor.
The film by Kenyan-Indian director Sippy Chadha is based on her 2008 short film of the same name.
Shot on location in Lamu and Nairobi, Subira tells the story of a young girl who is determined to live her dream of being a swimmer against the odds of restrictive local customs and a looming arranged marriage to an upper-class family.
“The story of Subira comes from a place of deep personal experience,” says Sippy, adding, “Growing up as a girl, in a traditional family in India, my entire life was laid out in front of me.
I must behave a certain way, look a certain way, marry into a certain family, have children, in that order. There wasn’t any significance given to my unique sense of self. In fact, self-expression was not allowed. Girls must obey to be considered “Good”.”
Joining Brenda and Tirath on the star-studded cast are Nice Githinji (House of Lungula), and Big Brother alum Melvin Alusa (The First Grader).
Subira also boasts some world-class talent behind the scenes including producer Vibeke Muasya who is currently developing a script for Netflix, costume designer Sophie Oprisanu who worked on Supa Modo and Disney’s Queen of Katwe starring Lupita Nyong’o, and Hollywood-based film editor Terry Kelly who won Emmy Award for his work on Homeland.