Yet another Malawian movie, Hilbrow was on August 14 premiered in the United States of America.
The patrons, mostly Malawians, watched the movie at AMV Theatre in South Bend, Indiana, with some coming in from as far as Atlanta, Georgia; Detroit, Michigan and Chicago, Illinois, just to mention a few.
Highbrow is a political satire mirroring the events of the infamous Cashgate scandal that rocked the Malawi civil service around 2012 and 2013.
The plot revolves around the flamboyant and youthful budget director Sergio Sekunda. It skirts around several themes chief of which is corruption, State capture and power play the nation in which it is set.
The plot is interwoven artistically, displaying a rare sense of intelligence to creatively tell a story all too familiar yet told with fictitious eyes.
In random interviews, patrons said they were impressed.
One of the people who attended the event Fatima Nkata, a former Malawi Big Brother Africa representative, said she was happy.
She said: “The director was daring in the way he approached an issue well known to Malawians and put it in a motion picture that tells a storyline that no film writer would dare to tread on. That was very creative.”
Another patron, Joe Yakobe said the most exciting thing about the movie was that it climaxed to the end.
“I enjoyed every part of this movie. I thought the acting was exceptional. I haven’t watched many Malawian movies and I was surprised with what I have seen today.
“It makes me proud to be a Malawian. They should just work on the sound coordination, otherwise well done to the entire team,” he said.
In an interview, the movie’s producer Chawezi Munthali, popularly known as Chaz D, said despite the modern application of its production, the film is 100 percent made by Malawians.
“The film was shot in Malawi. The editors, videographers, sound controller, cast and crew were all Malawians. I am Malawian. I just wanted to showcase that if we put together our talents as Malawians, we can come up with projects that will make us all proud,” he said.
According to Munthali, the film is being promoted online via social media marketing tools like Facebook and Instagram, in doing so, leveraging on the power it has to reach out to so many people both young and old.
“We will also advertise the movie through traditional media in Malawi as we build up to premiere the movie,” he said.
Highbrow is set to premiere in Blantyre and Lilongwe sometime in September or October this year
