Lesbian love movie director sues Kenyan board to lift ban on film
NAIROBI: The Kenyan director of a movie banned in her home country for telling the love story of two women has fi led a lawsuit seeking to lift the bar so it can be considered for the country’s Oscars entry, court documents show.
“Rafi ki”, which means friend in the Swahili language, premiered at the Cannes fi lm festival, the fi rst Kenyan fi lm to do so. It is adapted from an award-winning short story “Jambula Tree” by Ugandan writer Monica Arac de Nyeko.
To be eligible as Kenya’s entry under the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2019 Academy Awards, it must have been released in Kenya. However, the East African country banned it in April on the grounds that it promotes lesbianism. The deadline for a release in Kenya is Sept 30.
Wanuri Kahiu, who directed “Rafi ki”, lodged the suit against Kenya Film Classification Board chief Ezekiel Mutua and the country’s attorney general, the documents, seen by Reuters, show.
The board, which has to check scripts before fi lming begins, imposed the ban, saying on Twitter: “Anyone found in its possession will be in breach of law.” This referred to a colonial- era law under which gay sex is punishable by 14 years in jail.
The ban represented a reversal by the board as Mutua had earlier praised the fi lm as “a story about the realities of our time”. In 2015, the board also banned the erotic fi lm “Fifty Shades of Grey”.
Homosexuality is taboo across much of Africa and people who are gay face discrimination or persecution. In recent years, however, campaigners for
lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender rights have become increasingly vocal.
Earlier this year, Kenyan fi lm makers had urged authorities to revamp a 1960s law that imposes restrictions they say are stifl ing their resurgent industry.
The law, which dates from just before Kenya gained independence from Britain in 1963, allows the government to “control the making and exhibition” of audio visual material including fi lms.
Kenya’s fi lm industry was worth US$ 2 billion in 2016, up from US$ 600 million in 2007, according to a study by the Kenya Film Commission. — Reuters