John Kariuki
5 December 2004
Nairobi — Kenya filmmakers Jakub and Stan Barua have made a breakthrough into the international circuit with the French premiere of their controversial documentary film, Shades of Poland, which was screened in Paris last week. It deals with the history of Poland, covering the last 1,000 years.
The move paved the way for more overseas screening of a film that sheds light on Poland's past, much of which has remained locked out of the public domain for generations.
The Barua brothers, who both studied film at the world renowned Polish Film School, made the film in 1997, as an assignment by Polish Television (their mother is Polish) but segments of it upset renowned Polish writer Ryszard Kapuscinski. He waged a campaign to discredit the project by questioning the accuracy of some of the crucial information in the production.
Rather than ignore the issues raised by the cynics, the station decided to appoint an independent commission to verify the contentious issues. The main one was that contrary to popular belief, Poland did participate in slavery, giving it, like most other European nations, a link to Africa going back hundreds of years.
Three years of research by the commission cleared the film. Jakub has lived in Kenya for much of the past three years and sees the controversy as nothing but snobbery by Western critics and writers. "They are happy to write and do films on Africa and Africans but cannot see a reverse scenario where an African does a film on literature about them."
This is Barua's second documentary to screen abroad. The other is Forgotten Places that deals with myths on seafarers' traditions. During an interview, Jakub used the opportunity to highlight works by two departed Kenyan filmmakers - Sao Gamba and Jam Karanja - who also studied at the Polish film school. "I think we should keep their memories alive," he said.
Barua has been away filming and has won awards for his film Baba's - shot two years ago - and is working on a major project covering five continents. In Kenya, producers of the Spanish version of Survivors are said to be rethinking the choice of Tsavo East as the location for the reality television series. Sources also said that although Kenya is a favourite, rivals in other countries have stepped up campaigns to grab the series.
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