Shimoni

In her debut feature, Angela Wanjiku Wamai tells the story of a man at odds with his environment and at war with his inner demons. After being released from prison, Geoffrey is sent to the Kenyan village where he was raised. Formerly an English teacher, he is now forced to redirect his life in a community that he left behind, doing manual jobs that are alien to him. Justin Mirichii offers a moving performance of this tortured man trapped between the victim’s vulnerability and the perpetrator’s guilt. Shimoni is an affecting meditation on the enduring consequences of unspoken trauma. The director relies on a balanced visual exposition and on the symbolic charge of some crucial details, in order to build a slow-burn narrative that is not devoid of mystery – while subtly addressing issues regarding gender roles, religion, tradition and modernity, community and isolation, and the lack of appropriate support systems for the alienated individual. Shimoni addresses the profound, inescapable pain of open wounds that, unable to find expression and recognition, are condemned to be distorted and recreated. Restraint becomes the director’s best ally and an ethical decision in tune with the problems raised by the film. (International Film Festival Rotterdam)