In many societies around the world, making a movie about religion is a surefire way to court controversy. It’s a sensitive subject, one that must be handled deftly, lest a filmmaker incites the fury of millions of believers all over the world.
Some are able to handle it with aplomb, while others treat the subject with the grace of, say, US White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer invoking Adolf Hitler during Passover.
The tabloids brims with plenty of films that have stoked religious ire, from comedies like Monty Python’s Life of Brian to the Hindu drama Water.
On Monday, four producers of a new film, Lord of Kush, appeared before Harare magistrate Barbra Mateko charged for screening the film without the approval of government censors.
Veteran filmmaker Daves Guzha(52), who runs Theatre in the Park (TITP), Harare — a popular creative space in Harare — was jointly charged with film producer Tendai Maduwa (34), scriptwriter Kudakwashe Brian Bwititi (26), and Theatre in the Park manager Peter Churu (52).
The four were represented by lawyers from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, Tinomuda Shoko and Moses Nkomo and were remanded out of custody on $200 bail each.
During the court hearing, the state alleged that on July 27, between 1800 hours and 2030, at TITP in the Harare Gardens, Bwititi and Guzha approved the film’s launch and publicly exhibited it without approval by the censors.
Riot police were deployed at the venue with the officers demanding that the screening be stopped. Albeit, the executive at TITP did not stop the screening as the law enforcers were endowed with everything but valid paperwork that authorised such action of undue censorship and interference with freedom of expression.
The police then instructed Tendai Maduwa and Peter Churu to report to Central police station in Harare.
The two were subsequently taken to the Criminal Investigation Department Law and Order where they were joined by Daves Guzha.
It was only on Sunday, 28 July 2019, after their interrogation, that the filmmakers were formally charged with “unlawful public exhibition of a film’’, an act which the authorities claimed contravened Section 9(1)(a) of Zimbabwe’s Censorship and Entertainment Control Act, Chapter 10:04.
Prosecutor Sebastian Mutizirwa submitted before the court on Monday that the film, if shown to the world, was likely to cause conflict among religious groups, particularly between Christians and Muslims.
“On July 3, Maduwa advertised the launch of the film in a local publication without applying for a certificate from the Censorship and Entertainment Control Unit,” said Mutizirwa.
“Police investigations established that the contents of the film were undesirable as they depicted the abduction of a Zimbabwean ambassador to Pakistan’s child by a certain religious group. It was also established that if launched and shown to the world, it would invoke conflicts among religious groups particularly the Christians and Muslims.”
Nkomo asked the court for an order to force the State to investigate his client’s complaints, saying they were not informed of any charges upon their arrest and were only informed the next day.
The magistrate ordered the State to investigate the complaints.
The case is back in court on the 29th of August.
In a statement issued on Tuesday morning in Harare, Guzha said the arrest and arraignment of the producers of Lord of Kush represents an unfortunate low in the rapport between the creative sector and state governance systems in Zimbabwe.
Adding that the act was a bastion for free-thinking and expression as Theatre in the Park provides employment for many young people engaged in various forms of creative enterprise, the veteran filmmaker further stated that the police were ham-fisted in their conduct over the weekend.
“Zimbabwe Republic Police were clumsy in the way that they carried out their mandate in this instance. It is our belief that this was an abuse of their constitutional powers and a blatant violation of our artistic and constitutional freedoms,” said Guzha.
“We stand firm and resolute as a safe space for free thinking and expression. We believe the Censorship and Entertainment Control Act needs aligning to the new constitution.”
While the case was awaiting a court hearing on Monday, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Publicity Ndabaningi Nick Mangwana had said that the film, which is set in Pakistan and tackles religious fundamentalism had “security implications for a foreign power”.
“My understanding is that this is a play that had not been cleared by the Censorship and Entertainment Board. I’m informed the play has security implications for a foreign power and the censors did not approve it. They proceeded to feature the play in the Harare Gardens regardless,” wrote Mangwana on the microblogging site Twitter.
But Guzha, in response said government’s re-engagement policies should never be at the expense or sacrifice of the very creative and cultural industry and Zimbabweans who are an inherent part of the country’s sovereignty.
He said:
“We now have an unnecessary court case at sad variance with government’s ease of doing business mantra and austerity gospel. The attendant negative worldwide media attention does very little to aid the Second Republic’s re-engagement efforts. Re-engagement should never be at the expense or sacrifice of the very creative and cultural industry and Zimbabweans who are an intrinsic part of our sovereignty. We remain committed to being Zimbabwean!”
The film is still a work-in-progress and has not been completed yet.
Meanwhile, Artwatch Africa calls on Zimbabwean authorities to immediately drop the charges and allow unconditional completion of the film’s production cycle.
Lord Of Kush & Politics Of Truth
Lord of Kush is based on the 2014 killings of at least 141 people, including 132 children at the military-run Peshawar School in Pakistan. The bloody siege of the elite army high school by Taliban gunmen, which claimed students and teachers was an apparent retaliation for a major army operation after years of ambivalent policies toward the homegrown Islamist militants.
The mass targeting of children, in a military zone in the northwestern city of Peshawar drew condemnation from around the world, as well as from across Pakistan’s political and religious spectrums — a rare display of unity in a country where Islamist violence is often quietly accepted and sometimes defended. The attack was also condemned by Taliban leaders in Afghanistan.
Lord Of Kush producer Tendai Maduwa, speaking early this month, said the film was inspired by true events.
“I was in Pakistan years ago and there was a school (Peshawar) that was bombed by terrorists leading to the death of innocent children. This incident motivated me to pen this film. The movie tackles issues to do with peace, tolerance and just living together as a people regardless of religious, political, racial or tribal differences.”
According to its synopsis, it is a portrait of good intentions gone bad. Patrice, mother to Jerald Muchisoni, Zimbabwe’s ambassador to Pakistan is a retired professor with time on her hands. In a somewhat overzealous and inept way, she antagonises the Islamic community around her by imposing Christianity on Muslim children.
In the aftermath of her impetuous actions, Nontokozo, her only grandchild, is kidnapped, and thousands of school children are slain by a shadowy rebel group.
The massacre comes after another devastating strike in the east arena and, as things unfold, new imperatives emerge.
At the centre of all the carnage is Rashid, the Lord of Kush, calculating and merciless. Inevitably, in the commotion that breaks out, serious questions around the things that can be done, arise.
The movie embodies a politics of unpolarised truth in many aspects of the Muslim-Christian relations across the world.
Since its advent in the Arabian Peninsula in the seventh century, Islam has become a truly global faith.
With about 1.6 billion Muslims around the world — roughly 23 percent of the world’s population — Islam is the world’s second-largest religious practice after Christianity.
There is no doubt that radical groups such as al-Qaeda, the “Islamic Caliphate” (ISIS), Boko Haram, and others that claim a Muslim identity continues to pose a serious threat to life and liberty, and have seriously damaged attitudes toward Muslims and the Islamic faith.
What is often disregarded, however, is that it is Muslims themselves who are most regularly the fatalities of terrorism and blatant religious imperialism.
Muslim scholars, activists, political leaders, and clergy from 100 countries have condemned such overt cultural and religious intrusion, yet this often goes unreported by the Western media, according to The Bridge Initiative, published by the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University.
Faithful, law-abiding Muslims suffer not only the effects of violence and unrest in Africa and Asia but also the effects of prejudice and discrimination in countries like the United States.
Sadly, “Islamophobia” has been added to the list of other “phobias” plaguing the human society and world.
Given the tragic reality of sectarian violence in the world today, it is tempting simply to blame Islam and its adherents.
To do this, however, is to overlook the complexity of geopolitics and the various underlying causes of sectarian violence and thus unwittingly perpetuate discrimination, prejudices and worse.
Moreover, it perpetuates a great injustice against the vast majority of Muslims in the world who aspire to lives of true faith, freedom and lasting peace.
Perhaps it is such a grandstanding that Lord Of Kush is championing.
Watch Lord Of Kush trailer below:
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