Kanyankole (Catherine 'Scarlet' Nakyanzi) is washing herself behind the privacy of rusty corrugated iron in Kamwokya (Central Division), the shanty-town suburb of Kampala, Uganda where she lives. She's slung her clothes on top of the screen and small boys running past steal them. Kapo (Kyagulanyi 'Bobi Wine' Ssentamu) has chucked in his meat-carving job with Badru the butcher and saunters by. He grabs the boys and tells them off - they threaten him not to come to their neighbourhood, they're aggressive. Kapo takes Kanyankole her clothes, and once she's dressed, they set off to church. It's a covered, open-air place with plastic chairs, a fairly receptive audience, and a fairly enthusiastic preacher.

Kapo and Kanyankole - known as Annie and Annet, haven't come to pray. Kanyankole's mother is a born-again Christian, so Kanyankole is regarded as born-again - but pretty much her favourite word is fuck (the swear-word rather than the action). It's mentioned that Kanyankole is susceptible to epileptic fits. Kanyankole waits outside as Kapo slips into the congregation to accomplish his mission - to lure away red-shirted Mulokole (Olem 'Lot' Bonny) from Mulokole's religious aunty. Kapo has plans for the three of them today.

Bana (Bugembe 'Buchaman' Mark) has a wasted left leg - people call him the cripple - an angry red wound on the left side of his face, and thick dreadlocks. He lives in a compound called the Dipo, because it's where everyone deposits their stolen goods. The men who live there include a very vocal rapper - JaJa, the founder of the compound, tells him to shut up, without much effect - and four or five others up to no good - who smoke a lot of dope. Bana wakes up, smokes a joint and exhales richly. He dresses to go off to town, and sets off with his crutch, his useless leg dangling. A scooter taxi rider - The Boda Boda Man (Katsigire Patrick) - gives him a lift, and they talk about sex as they drive through the market stalls and dirt roads to town.

Three groups of people are established - the trio of Kapo, Kanyankole, Mulokole; the den of thieves with Bana as the leading man; the aggressive small boys. They exist as three groups through much of the film, separate communities of trouble, with reasons to be in conflict with each other. For the small boys it's competive coin-games and small-boy fighting. For the thieves it's the conflict of living together; noise, small jealousies.

For the central trio, it's tribal. Mulokole is from the North, he's regarded as unsophisticated and stupid; he in turn hates Kanyankole on tribal grounds. The two of them spit and snarl at each other continually, exchanging fuck- and stupid-bitch-laden language. Kapo - whose other names are Robert and Money Man, or just Mr Money - uses his authority and diplomatic skills to keep the peace between them; mainly because he has a plan involving them all. They eat at Mama Namu's café. She's perturbed that Bana will join them because he owes her money from eating there yesterday. Kapo's trying to stop Kanyankole sniping verbally at Mulokole for his rural taste in food, though he teases him himself. When Bana arrives - watched from the distance by the boda boda driver - it gets much worse. Bana derides Mulokole for his red shirt - 'You don't dress like that in the ghetto' - prods into Mulokole's food, and swigs Mulokole's passion-fruit drink. Mama Namu serves Bana and berates him for owing her money. Kapo pays for everyone, including Bana's debt of 1,000 shillings - a total of 4,500 shillings; and that makes Kanyankole angrier still. So, seething with conflicts, the quartet head off to do business.

The business is for Bana to disappear into a metal-doored building to buy a CD for a good price. The money goes up - he takes 2,000 shillings off Kapo - and the trio wait outside for an hour. Bana emerges, gives Kapo the CD case, and they're set upon by police. Bana escapes, Kapo bribes the police and, after being manhandled, the trio are set free. Kapo is delighted by the disc, which has cost the trio all their money - but when he opens the case, it's empty. And the boda boda man catches up with them, furious, thinking they're friends of Bana's, because Bana hasn't paid him. He and Kanyankole scream at each other, again on tribal grounds, and he hits her hard.

This terrible action, and its appalling consequence for Kanyankole, is the pivot of the film. After it, some strands come together, and there's an odd concluding segment. The film began with clips of boys fighting, black cows fighting, and Kapo and Bana squaring up to each other. There was a voice-over saying 'What could happen in one day?' and 'In Kampala, only the smart succeed', with a caption 'Pre-present day'. The final part is headed 'Present day', and has Kapo and Bana in more sophisticated circumstances related to music. There's a theme of music going through the film. A passing dust-covered van has a Puff Daddy poster on its back - the wealth of the musician contrasting with the poverty the van passes - and there's a strong soundtrack from Roadblock and Chillum Woods Sound, with the film's theme song by Benon Mugumbya. But the present-day sequence feels rather tacked-on to what has been a story of neighbourhood life. Also, because the film starts with clips of the incidents to come, including the final squaring-up between Kapo and Bana, the ending - which doesn't show what happens next - comes as a damp squib. And the most important human aspect - what has happened to poor Kanyankole - isn't clear.

Olem 'Lot' Bonny gives a subtle performance as rural buff-of-jokes Mulokole, catching his anger and slow-wittedness without making him stupid. Bugembe 'Buchaman' Mark is superb as Bana, creating a believable arch-villian from his characterisation rather than relying only on the scarred, deformed tag; it's the contained bubbling rage that makes the impact. Katsigire Patrick gives the Boda Boda Man a deep, brooding anger, and a sense of threat that runs through the different storylines. Kyagulanyi 'Bobi Wine' Ssentamu creates a defining character with Kapo, at once likeable and detestable, gullible, perceptive, tolerant and angry; he delivers Kapo aka Robert as a complex, intriguing man - the central anchor to a complex set of stories. Catherine 'Scarlet' Nakyanzi walks away with the film as Annet / Kanyankole. She creates a stunning character - angry, certainly (all the characters are angry), but vulnerable, while at the same time spotting the seams of vulnerability in the other characters and tearing into them with torrents of carefully-worded abuse. And Annet has her own vulnerability. It's a subtlety of Catherine 'Scarlet' Nakyanzi's characterisation that she evokes - by nuance and pulled-back acting - the way in which Annet / Kanyankole's anger may be founded on her medical delicacy.

Directors collective Yes! That's Us keep the action sharp and immediate. Cinematographers James Tayler and Donald Mugisha produce gorgeous photography - from washed-out pictures of Kampala's skyline through the progressive hours of a day to lingering and superbly-lit (by Alex Ireeta) shots of food and its making; fruit stalls, a meat shop; interiors and daylight/nightime; faces and bodies - all rendered to perfection. Writers Donald Mugisha and James Tayler, with co-writers Baguma Eunice and Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, produce an intriguing script. It relies superbly on the camera and incidents telling the story, rather than just words - though the words are strong, and conveyed powerfully by the subtitles. It does fall down in the final segment, and the end is an anticlimax. That scene has been shown at the start, and not seeing what happens next gives a feeling of avoiding the big scene, a sense of being short-changed. Also, the final part feels unrelated to the main film, which feels unfinished. It may be that the writers couldn't think of how to end that story, common enough in scripts, and this ending is better than nothing, but it's not the ending this powerful film deserves.

The film's sound recording is uniformly superb, conjuring a real feel of the suburbs shacks, buildings, compounds, tracks and alleyways. Ally Mutaka and Alex Ireeta record the sound, with Magus Visual and Goodenuff on equipment. Kemigisha Keloy's work on hair and makeup is a significant plus to the production values, particularly on the hair of the central characters, and the work on Bana's scar. Petna Ndaliko Katondolo's casting direction finds an exact cast for each of the roles - from the gang of evil small boys (there's particularly strong casting in these smaller roles which add to the story's three-dimensionality) to the main parts.

CAST (alpha order): Olem 'Lot' Bonny - Mulokole. Bugembe 'Buchaman' Mark - Bana. Katsigire Patrick - The Boda Boda Man. Catherine 'Scarlet' Nakyanzi - Kanyankole. Kyagulanyi 'Bobi Wine' Ssentamu - Kapo. Credits Source – Producers' notes at LFF press screening 1 October 08; Wide Management at 1 October 08.

COMPANY: Directors - Yes! That's Us (collective). Yes! That's Us founders: Donald Mugisha, Rogers Wadada, Alex Ireeta, Samson 'Xenson' Senkaaba. Writers - Donald Mugisha, James Tayler. Producers - Donald Mugisha, James Tayler. Co-writers - Baguma Eunice, Kyagulanyi Ssentamu. Executive Producer - Adolf El Assal. Associate Producers - Nathan Magoola, George Kafeero. Director of Photography - James Tayler. Cinematographers - James Tayler, Donald Mugisha. Camera Assistants - Ally Mutaka, Kanyike Twist. Sound Recordists - Ally Mutaka, Alex Ireeta. Sound Equipment - Magus Visual, Goodenuff. Editor - Donald Mugisha. Music by - Roadblock, Chillum Woods Sound. Theme Song by - Benon Mugumbya. Musicians include: Bobi Wine, Buchaman, Peter Miles, Jaqee, Benon, Crystal Fabulous, Akiiki Romeo, Thornhead, Shada Band (Tanzania). Script & Continuity - Sharon Ankunda. Hair & Makeup - Kemigisha Keloy. Lighting - Alex Ireeta. Production Supervisors - Rogers Wadada, Anthony Muhebwa. Production Manager - Ziray Isaac. Location Manager - Farouk Katende. Production Designer - Samson 'Xenson' Senkaaba. Casting Director - Petna Ndaliko Katondolo. Companies - Deddac / Switch Media Production in association with Bigtime Entertainments & Collywood Films; Wide Management. Original Language - Luganda. Format - DVCAM. Nationality - Uganda. Locations: Kamwokya, Kampala, Uganda. Websites - www.widemanagement.com, www.bigtime-ents.com. Credits Source – Producers' notes at LFF press screening 1 October 08; Wide Management at 1 October 08. :

END

John Park

reviewed Wednesday 1 October 08 / press screening / NFT3, National Film Theatre, London

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