IMAGINE a country where more people die of HIV/AIDS, malnutrition and lack of medical care each week than are killed in Afghanistan, Iraq or Darfur. A country where hospitals operate without doctors, urban neighbourhoods suffer months without water, and unemployment tops 90 percent.
It happened in Zimbabwe before 2008 and all the pain, suffering and true life drama is captured in the film iThemba (Hope), which premiered at the Prince Edward School Hall in Harare on Tuesday night.
The film, which is in the form of a musical by eight talented Bulawayo disabled artistes, brings out the soul and spirit of a suffering populace.
It is produced and directed by Elinor Burkett and stars Liyana, a band formed as a project among students at The King George VI Centre for Children with Physical Disabilities -- an extraordinary home and school in Bulawayo.
iThemba is a gripping and stirring narrative that charts Zimbabwe’s decline prior to the 2008 disputed presidential elections, from which the country emerged better with the formation of a power sharing government and a stabilisation of the political and economic situation.
The film portrays a near dysfunctional state, collapsed public health system, fuel queues, intermittent power cuts and food shortages.
It is a poignant narrative about eight compelling young people who refuse to succumb to the stigma of disability or the collapse of their country.
Oscar-winning Prudence Mabhena leads the Liyana band whose cast includes Goodwell Nzou, Farai Mabhande, Vusani Vuma, Tapiwa Nyengera, Energy Maburutse and Honest Mupatsi.
iThemba unfolds against the backdrop of political tensions and the daily struggle to find a bank that actually had cash, to buy food although store shelves were empty, and to navigate streets pocked with wheelchair-mangling potholes.
iThemba was conceived, shot and edited by a Jamaican, American, and Zimbabwean team.
“I’ve long been drawn to stories of ‘outsiders’, men and women confined by culture and tradition to the social margins,” said the film’s director, Burkitt.
“And when I moved to Zimbabwe in 2005 and met the members of Liyana, I knew I had found yet another such compelling tale, all the richer because these young musicians cringe at any sign of pity.
“It’s respect they crave, and they evoke it with talent and resilience. They humbled me. I needed to introduce them to an international audience.”
Burkitt told of difficulties in putting iThemba together during the production stage.
“Shooting was a constant challenge. The electricity had a pesky tendency to shut down just as we were transferring footage or charging dead batteries. During the eight months we filmed, food was available only on the black market or across the border in Botswana.
“A cholera epidemic and election violence provoked panic back home, there was no gas at the pumps, and wherever we traveled, people grew nervous at the sight of the camera, worried that in that contentious political climate, we might spell trouble,” said Burkitt.
The crew, said Burkitt, had to learn “which of our friends had electricity when we did not – and to rely on the generosity of strangers.”
“We discovered how chickens doled out to paramount chiefs and loaves of bread to lesser luminaries could ease our passage, and we plotted a dozen shooting strategies that kept us off the streets.”
“Despite these difficulties, we kept laughing, infected by the members of Liyana, who cope with everything from political turmoil to overt discrimination with deliciously dark humor and gracious aplomb.”
TRAILER: iTHEMBA