Soul Boy

Germany, Kenya

2010

61 Min

Color

1.85:1

Swahili

Currently 3.1/5 Stars.
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PROD Marie Steinmann, Tom Tykwer, Ginger Wilson

CAST Nordeen Abdulghani, Christopher Abuga, Rose Adhiambo, Jones Onyango Ajwala, Consolata Apondi

SOUND Matthias Lempert

Edinburgh (Rosebud), Rotterdam (Signals: Where Is Africa?)

Synopsis

Originating from a workshop led by Tom Tykwer (Perfume, Run Lola Run), this disarmingly gentle debut from Ghanaian-Kenyan director Essuman combines supernatural myth and the hard-scrabble realities of big-city Nairobi, as a teenage lad performs seven tasks to save his (apparently) curse-stricken dad. The real magic, however, is in the script which intelligently explores a dizzyingly wide range of pressing issues, all within the most accessibly economic of packages. —Edinburgh International Film Festival

Director

Hawa Essuman

Hawa Essuman shares her working life between film and television, directing, writing and producing. Soul Boy is her first feature and is a co-operation with the German director Tom Tykwer, who runs a social project training young film professionals in Kenya. In 2008, Essuman directed the television drama Makutano Junction. She is currently working on two feature films, The Lift and the Question of Being Selfish. —Women of the Sun