New movie emerges from Lilongwe ghetto
A new local movie has been released by a production company based in Lilongwe.
Dipolathu, is the first of a series of movies that Eccentric Media Services (EMI) has undertaken in Malawi in an effort to build the local film industry.
Dipolathu is a story of an orphaned girl who after going through a series of both psychological and physical abuse decides that she has had enough and fights back. Dipolathu lives with her aunt, but both her uncle and son have been sexually harassing her up to a point where the husband actually rapes her.
She reveals this to her aunt who reacts by telling Dipo to leave her house.
Dipo contemplates suicide but decides its better she makes them suffer too. She seduces the husband and cuts his manhood and kills the son before running away.
“Being our first movie, I say it’s a pretty good movie. Full of suspense, dramatic and leaves you with lots of questions. I must say this is the beginning of a new chapter of Malawi’s film industry. I wrote and directed the movie which was produced by a media company I belong to, EMI. Early next year, and they should expect something even far much better than this movie because we are eccentric,” said director Aram Nyondo.
The 40-minute movie has a cast new actors and actresses who look promising in their own right. Many show prowess and skill in from of the camera that leaves some people believing the actors and actresses have been doing that since time immemorial.
“The cast consist of only the best upcoming actors and I am saying this because I have had a chance to witness them first hand.
“Rose Chizumila takes the lead role, Dipolathu, Charity Skeva acts the aunt, Owen Mbulaje acts the son and I act the husband, Mr. Phiri, with Yvonne Yana Ingolo acting the neighbour, Make Linda,” explained the up and coming movie producer.
The movie, done in Chichewa with English subtitles, was shot over three days in Lilongwe in areas like 18 and 49, on a budget of was K 100 000.
With such a budget and done in a short period of time, people expect something of substandard quality out of the movie. But it is quite a good start. Even the producer is optimistic of the impact the movie will make.
“Nothing is impossible and victory loves preparation. If you have good actors, do great rehearsals, get superb crew, a great script and very good director, I think that is a recipe for an award winning movie, even when its shot in three days,” explained Nyondo when asked if with such a budget and in three days one can come up with a good movie capable of being screened at international festivals or winning awards.
However, due to lack of funds, there will be no public premiering of the move.
“We would have loved to do a public launch of Dipolathu, but financial constraints won’t allow us. But still our aim is not to sell the movie, we just want to get it out there for people to appreciate the talent we have. As such, we are yet to send it to television channels such as MBC TV, Times TV and Luso TV. We have even planned to distribute copies in video shows as well apart from loading it Youtube.
“Simply put, this is our advertisement. In Malawi, from my experience, you can’t become someone, unless people know you and know your work. We know our work, and its good but people don’t know that and they won’t buy something they don’t know,” he explained.
