MARC UWIZEYE, mostly known as Rocky, believes as a professional film interpreter his job is to make people understand the movies. 

Locally known as 'agasobanuye’  the profession is well appreciated by the Rwandan society and highly recognised "because by translating movies viewers not only get the sense of understanding, entertainment and relaxation to the ones watching the movies, but we also have managed to create jobs opportunities for over than 7, 600 Rwandan youth.”

Finding his career path

Rocky shared that he found his dream career and started his career path in 2015. His first translated film was ‘Salem Witch Trials’. As his brand continued to grow, he joined the African Movie Market, a company that trades interpreted films in Rwanda. 

In 2018, he managed to open his own company ‘Rocky Entertainment’ which has various departments including, Music Label, Movie Translation House, and Advertisement. In 2020, he joined tourism to promote domestic tourism via Kimomo Safaris. This made him popular enough to become a brand ambassador of Itel Rwanda, amongst other companies.

 Rocky receiving the 2019 Made In Rwanda Awards as the Best Movie Interpreter of the year Photos/Courtesy

Via his company, ‘Rocky Entertainment’ in the Music Label category, he has been working with several artistes like Generous 44, Mirabyo The Warren, Emeline Penzi, and Papa Cyangwe with whom they parted ways recently.

Throughout the journey he has won awards. In 2019, he won the Made In Rwanda Awards as the Best Movie Interpreter organised by Kalisimbi Events, and in 2020 he was the winner of The Choice Awards as the Best Influencer of the year.

Challenges faced

"One of the biggest challenges is about the market and income. The love for our translated movies from our audience doesn’t go hand in hand with the generated income. But we are thankful that it still gives job opportunities to so many people. We have agents in all districts of the country and foreign countries like Burundi too.” said Rocky.

He shared that it doesn’t bother them when one translates a movie and the counterparts do the same movie. Instead, it is a good opportunity since the audiences have multiple choices to select from according to their preferences. So far they appreciate the fact that Rwandans acknowledge and respect this profession a lot which encourages them to go the extra mile to learn many new languages and give them the best they deserve.

He added that they are granted permission from movie owners before translating them to Kinyarwanda. He also revealed that there is a union of professional movie translators that everyone in this career must be registered in to be certified for the job.

When asked about the way some movie translators tell lies, Rocky said, "this is not just a game of mind where one can simply try and make it work. It is all about talent as well as the skills attached to it. Knowing languages is one and understanding this industry is another added value.”

Asked why translators seem to attack celebrities during movie interpretation he said, "normally, we are not attacking them. We are keeping the entertainment vibes instead. Sometimes while we are doing the interpretations, we might be sitting with the Rwandan celebrities we talk about in the movies. This means, we only talk about the ones we are so close with and no hatred, it’s all about entertaining the audience.”

How they sell their movies

"We sell our movies (Agasobanuye) through our agents. We also do sell them on our official website www.agasobanuyefilms.com and there a customer can find the streaming service of a monthly subscription on $7 and watch the most popular tv shows and movies translated in Kinyarwanda.”

The traffic rate of 97 percent of customers is what the registered disc burners in all districts tend to reach daily which generates more than 709,000 people per week for each. Hence 5,025,490 viewers of 'agasobanuye' per week and Rocky Entertainment alone releases 120 movies every month translated by Rocky and his young brother, Savimbi.

The 31-year-old, born and raised in Kigali,  finished his secondary school at Ecole Saint Joseph Kabgayi in 2012 and later joined Integrated Polytechnic Regional Center East (IPRC East), where he graduated in 2017.