Filmmaker and writer Wanuri Kahiu's film Rafiki was this year the first Kenyan feature film to screen at Cannes, yet this Romeo and Juliet style story of a lesbian teen romance set in the homophobic environment of a Nairobi housing estate has been banned in its home country after censors took offence to its gay subject matter.
In a remarkable event, last month that ban was lifted for just a week in Kenya to enable Rafiki to meet Oscar qualification rules, and it then proceeded to smash Kenyan box office records becoming the second highest grossing Kenyan film of all time - after just one week of screening. Wanuri continues to fight for its general Kenyan release.
The director of six films, Wanuri Kahiu is part of a new generation of African artists, and co-founder of media collective Afrobubblegum, who promote that African art can be "fun, fierce and frivolous" in the face of familiar African narratives about war, poverty and devastation. You can find a selection of her impressive films online on her website.
Wanuri Kahiu is in Auckland this week for conversations and screenings of Rafiki on Wednesday and Thursday as part of The Big Screen Symposium and then in Wellington and Otaki from next Sunday.
