Video on demand service, Showmax, has announced the debut of Mugambi Nthiga’s short film Lusala on its platform this Thursday. Also landing on Showmax is Coerced Revenge, starring Xavier Ywaya.
Kenyan film Lusala is coming to Showmax on Thursday 17 December, 2020. The film comes at a time when there has been a surge of local production aired in international Tv platforms. This has exposed local actors to a wider audience the world over.
Lusala follows Brian Ogola (Poacher, 18 Hours) in the titular role as a young man whose life is interrupted by the demons from his childhood. To escape his violent childhood, Lusala runs away to the city where he’s adopted by an affluent family. Now working at a local mechanic shop, the time comes for him to be his own man, encouraged by his adoptive mother, who worries that Lusala could be a danger to her daughter.
Out in the world on his own, Lusala’s past comes back to haunt him, dredging up painful forgotten memories that could push him over the edge.
Starring alongside Ogola is Stycie Waweru (Supa Modo), Mkamzee Mwatela (Stay, Mali), Alan Oyugi (Lost in Time, The Wives), Alyce Wangari (Kina), with a brief appearance by Peter Kawa (Lost in Time), Charlie Karumi (Morning After), and Melvin Alusa (Monica, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind).
Lusala is the directorial debut of Mugambi Nthiga, who co-wrote Mbithi Masya’s Kati Kati and Likarion Wainaina’s Supa Modo, and has appeared in Nairobi Half Life, Kati Kati, and Stories of Our Lives – four critically-acclaimed Kenyan films awarded at Toronto, Berlin, and AFI respectively, among many other festivals.
At the 2019 Kalasha Awards, Lusala was nominated for four awards including Best Feature Film and Best Lead Actor for Ogola.
Just recently in November, Lusala won the Rimbaud Award at the 2020 Les Rimbaud du Cinéma, held in France at the oldest active cinema in the world. In the film, Xavier Ywaya lays out his plan to bomb a major university in Coerced Revenge.
Also coming to Showmax on 17 December is Kenyan film Coerced Revenge, a terrorism drama that follows Lulu (newcomer Vivian Anyango), a young woman who is forced to help her uncle carry out a terrorist attack on one of the biggest universities in Kenya.
Xavier Ywaya (40 Sticks, Too Early for Birds) plays Shaka, Lulu’s radicalised uncle, who converts to Islam while in Pakistan and comes back to the country with a plan to carry out his revenge on an institution that failed him. Gitau Ngogoyo (Sense8, House of Lungula) and Carol Midimo (Kina, Makutano Junction) co-star.
Lusala and Coerced Revenge add to the Kenyan film catalogue on Showmax that already includes AMVCA winner for Best Overall Movie 18 Hours, AMVCA winner for Best Documentary The Flesh Business, Kalasha winner Plan B, and Africa Movie Academy winner From a Whisper. Others are award-winning and critically-acclaimed films like Veve, Nairobi Half Life, Supa Modo, Kati Kati, and Something Necessary, all of which will be available on Showmax from 17 December.