Happy Queer Media Monday!
Today: Rafiki (2018) (Title translates to: “Friend”)
This is going to be one of the more spectacular ones. Buckle up!
(Ziki braiding Kena’s hair.)
Rafiki is a 2018 Kenyan movie. The plot is a fairly simple coming-of-age romance. It is about two teenage girls, Ziki and Kena, who, despite their fathers competing against each other in local elections, quickly form a close bond that develops into a romance.
It is, despite the homophobia underlying the society it exists in, a very sweet and joyful movie. It is very colorful, and has all the hopefulness of two young women who just start out in life. Also, and it IS very much not a given, the movie has a hopeful ending.
Where it gets interesting: Homosexuality is illegal in Kenya, punishable by 14 years prison. The Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB) ruled that this movie was too positive in its depiction of gayness, claiming that it “promoted lesbianism”. As a consequence, they banned it, and warned everyone that even possessing it would be a break of the law. This caused international outrage, and the director Wanuri Kahiu suing the Kenyan government for infringement of her free speech. You can find the whole drama in detail via articles in the source section of the Wikipedia article, or a shorter version here.
Kahui’s main argument was that she wanted to submit her film to the Oscars, but couldn’t do so if it didn’t screen in Kenya, and since Kenya has freedom of speech, she should be allowed to submit her movie to the Oscars, hence they couldn’t ban her from screening it. She won the lawsuit, and the ban was lifted for a week. At this point, enough people had heard of the controversy that there was a large popular interest, and theaters had to add extra screenings.
Rafiki didn’t end up winning anything, as in the end, Kenya submitted another movie in the Foreign Language Film category. Even so, I find this one of the most amazing and definitely one of the most inspiring stories that went down in the film world in recent years. I am European, but even I was following this story through articles shared on social media. And of course I went to see it in the cinema, when it aired here.
You can find a trailer here, and an interview with director Wanuri Kahiu here. Seriously, watch it, she’s amazing. The movie appears to be on Amazon Prime.
Queer Media Monday is an action I started to talk about some important and/or interesting parts of our queer heritage, that people, especially young people who are only just beginning to discover the wealth of stories out there, should be aware of. Please feel free to join in on the fun and make your own posts about things you personally find important!
