Feature film

La Benevolencija has produced different fictional feature films in the Great Lakes region of Africa. The one profiled here is I Mashoka, the first science-fiction film produced in Burundi – the film incorporates different elements of the Continuum of Violence to inform the audience and increase their resilience.

In 2058, somewhere in Africa, Nijimbere and Kamikazi tell, in front of the camera, a story that happened forty years earlier. The Bagabuzi and Banyamazi are living a cordial harmony, when in 2017, when the global shortage of drinking water makes life difficult, the decontamination of the springs becomes more complicated. A deaf antagonism settles in between the two communities. In this context of mutual mistrust and hatred, unbeknownst to their families, Nijimbere (a Mugabuzi) and Kamikazi (a Munyamazi) love each other and communicate regularly with the complicity of Mizero, Nijimbere’s cousin. But circumstances will soon change the course of their lives and the entire community.

I Mashoka is directed by Jean Marie Ndihokubwayo and Pascal Capitolin. It is was first out in 2014 in Bujumbura, Burundi.