Director

Sam Soko

Kenya | 2020 | 96 min | English

• Producer Toni Kamau, Sam Soko
• Production Company LBx Africa
• Screenplay Sam Soko
• Cinematography Joel "Ingo" Ngui, Sam Soko, Chris Rhys Howarth
• Editing Mila Aung-Thwin, Sam Soko, Ryan Mullins
• Sound Cory Rizos CAS, Edwin Ahenda, Brian Munene
• Cast
• Contacts

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About the Film

Soko's debut feature-length documentary is about Boniface Mwangi, who was a young photojournalist during the violent aftermath of the 2007 elections in Kenya, which led to the country's leaders being tried in the International Criminal Court. At that time, he turned his camera lens on what was happening to his people. Men were being sliced apart with machetes, people were being dragged through the streets and beaten to death.

Massacres due to political reasons but fuelled by the vicious Kikuyu versus Luo tribal conflict, cynically exploited by the competing parties. Fed up with the press and the government's apathy, when he had the evidence to back up his claims, Mwangi quit his job and took to the streets in protest, organizing himself open-air exhibitions with his pictures. A decade later, Mwangi is still working tirelessly to expose the country's corrupt political system and is running for becoming a member of parliament.

But Mwangi’s public side is not the only one that the documentary highlights; he is also a family man who dearly loves his wife Njeri and his three children. Even if Njeri has always shared his battles and been at his side, a series of death threats persuade her to leave for the US with her children. In a very touching sequence, Njeri tries to convince Boniface that love for his family should come first, or maybe second, after God, but not after the country. For Boniface, though, her request is a non-existing problem: to care about Kenya is to care about the future of his children, therefore, about the family he dearly loves.

Softie is not only a riveting film that obliges the viewer to think about the still-lasting effects of colonial damages; it is also a technical tour de force: the way Soko masterfully blends all kinds of visual material documenting Mwangi activity with his own footage earned him the award for best editing at the Sundance Film Festival.

Teresa Cavina