TWO YOUNG Rwandan filmmakers, Kagabo Nkubiri and Jean Pierre Niyigena, are working on a film that tells the modern lifestyle of young people in their 20’s living in Kigali. Dubbed ‘Kigali 21’, the movie is about a beautiful romantic crime story about young adults struggling with the pressures of growing up in Kigali. It’s an ensemble fast-paced tense story that takes one day in the lives of four 21-year-olds and explores their refusal to mature up and face the consequences that come from their irresponsibility. Jean Pierre Niyigena the Co-producer of Kigali21 The film also explores the conflict between their endless pursuit for pleasure indulging in passionate romance, drugs, parties and sex, and the inevitability of the consequences for their actions that demand immediate maturity. Themed ‘Youth v Responsibility’, the film is part of the project that benefited from the creative industry recovery fund initiated by Imbuto Foundation. Few months after attending DSTV’s intensive trainings from the Hollywood and Bollywood film experts in Zambia back in 2019, Nkubiri immediately embarked on working on films whose standards, he hopes, will qualify it to be screened on Netflix. “I want to do an entertaining movie whose theme looks quite different from the other movies being produced from within Rwanda,” he said. The filmmaker had previously been involved in different DSTV’s TV shows in Zambia, working as a production assistant, line producer, or director for some film episodes. He and his co-producer have been working on the project since November 2019 while his former colleagues with whom he attended the same training with are expected to join him in Kigali once the shooting of the film project takes shape in March. Nkubiri, who started a filmmaking career in 2014, told The New Times that the film’s idea was inspired their experience growing up and their efforts to follow in the older generation’s footsteps. “Choosing to make a film about the youth was highly influenced by our own experience growing up in Kigali and how we were subjected to irresponsible pleasure-seeking activities, while at the same time learning to deal with the pressures of adulthood and fend for ourselves without any preparation whatsoever,” he said. “We wanted to focus more on the youth in Kigali because when most issues raised on youth focus on youth from urban areas,” he added. The film, he said, highlights a day in the life of the youth from morning to evening. It is built around four main characters where each one has his/her own story. One of them sells drugs as a shortcut to get rich and spend the money to have fun. He represents young people who want money quickly through illegal actions. He has a girlfriend, another main character, who is living in the same house a few days after she lost her parents. She forces him to marry her after he eventually impregnated her, a representation of naïve girls who cannot fend for themselves financially even when presented with the opportunities. Her boyfriend, however, wants her to abort so as to avoid responsibilities that will limit him his fun life. The third character is a ‘slay queen’ who is in a relationship with a foreigner that covers all her expenses and her hope is that he will one day take her abroad and marry her. She represents all girls who don’t want to work but are desperate to live a luxurious life. She also represents a woman who has no dignity in society. The fourth main character is a talented rapper but who doesn’t want to exploit his talent. He represents all the young people who have potential but who don’t want to explore their talent and instead spend their time in parties and drug use. All the characters are supposed to be aged 21, he asserted. “We chose the characters aged 21 as the age when one is expected to make the transition from childhood to maturity,” he says. Nkubiri believes the film will play an educative impact to the youth who are in their 20s and even in their 30s but still behave like they are too young to take responsibilities. Before the age of 21, he said, young people are dependent on their parents for everything. And at 21, the urban youth avoid responsibility as adults. “At that stage they know that they have grown up but some are afraid of being responsible,” he said.
