Nairobi Half Life: The film that revolutionized the Kenyan film industry

"The first film to be submitted for the category of the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards"

Directed by David Gitonga, Nairobi Half Life is a drama film that has revolutionized the Kenyan film industry. In this film, Mwas (Joseph Wirimu) is living with his parents. The young man lives by selling western action film which he portrays to attract his customers.

However, when he meets a group of actors, he seeks for their help to start his career in acting. For him to begin acting, he is asked for KSH 1,000 (US$10). He cannot afford to get KSH 1,000, but his mother gives him KSH 500. With KSH 1,000, he journeys to Nairobi.

It is in Nairobi that things go wrong for him. First, he loses everything to a gang of thieves. Second, he gets arrested and sleeps in jail for a day. However, he meets Oti (Olwenya Maina), a criminal gang member who he becomes friends with.

He eventually manages to land a part in a local play. With the life of a criminal and acting, he decides to start stealing cars because it makes more money than the other gang related activities. It is at this time that he falls in love with Amina.

There are a number of reasons this film has revolutionized the Kenyan film industry. First, the film shows the different lives in Kenya between the poor and the rich. Second, the film shows the struggles poor people go through to succeed. Third, the film�s actor, Joseph Wirimu won the award of the best actor at the 33rd urban International Film Festival. Fourth, the same actor also won the promising actor award from the Awards 9th ceremony.

I would encourage anyone to watch this interesting film to understand the lives of poor people who live in Nairobi and how they try to make a living in any way possible, whether through the use of legal or illegal means.

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