Divizionz

Colour, DIGIBETA
Uganda, South Africa, United Kingdom, Luxembourg, 2008, 89 min
Section: Forum of Independents

Synopsis

Four young friends from four parts of Uganda try to make it in the capital city of Kampala, where they have set out to start careers as musicians. The unwritten rules of the city’s “divizionz”, however, can lead unwitting guests down dead-end roads. The protagonists are suddenly confronted by hitherto unknown conflicts in which their relationships with one another vie for the upper hand with the phantoms of personal success. The film is one of those that conveys the audience to exotic places without taking advantage of the setting to conjure up the atmosphere. The key factor in this is the authenticity with which the slums are portrayed and the use of local non-actors. The film does not need guns to evoke drama – the threat to the protagonists’ plan is dramatic enough. The film shows slums consumed by infighting, the roots of which lie not in the established hierarchy (as we know from films set in the Rio de Janeiro favelas), but in sheer human rivalry.

About the director

Yes! That’s Us is a group of Ugandan filmmakers linked to the production company Deddac, which was co-founded by Donald Mugisha. The team came together in 2002 and unites creative talents who were previously making short films and music videos for East African musicians. The film 610 (2005) which, like Divizionz, was written by Donald Mugisha and directed by the Yes! That’s Us collective, won the main prize at the Kampala film festival. The first audiences to see Divizionz, which Mugisha co-wrote with South African documentary filmmaker James Tayler, were the residents of the five Kampala neighbourhoods, for whom the filmmakers held free screenings. The film was later shown in the Forum section of the Berlin IFF.