In a squeezed private screening space, boisterous artistes are here to cheer their peers while several gatecrashers have a bite and a glass of free wine. Don't mind, this is just a typical scene at the premiere of a Kenyan movie.

Mob Doc, a local movie about to be released, won't go this way though. Instead, the slapstick comedy will hit the screens in a luxurious cinema theatre.
Mob Doc, one of the 24 movies under Majitu Productions, is set to screen for three weeks at NuMetro theatres; a scene that will thereafter replay every month for the next two years.

The premiere is slated for August 28 at the Westgate NuMetro theatre in Nairobi's Westlands.

In the past, the upmarket cinema theatres have only reserved space for premieres of Hollywood and Bollywood movies as Kenyan films struggled to get screening opportunities.

"We now want to create a dependable market for Kenyan films by creating a cinema going culture," says Alex Konstantaras, the film's director.

After cinema screenings, says Nicko Kang'ethe who is a director at Vivid Features under which Majitu Productions operates, DVDs of the movies will be released into the market.

They will be sold at less than Sh100 each, a departure from high price tags that have been placed on most Kenyan DVDs.

The company is replicating the DVD in China, something that has brought costs down to about a fifth of what one pays for the same service in Nigeria or South Africa - the only two options where the DVD replicating service is offered in Africa.

Mob Doc is the story of a sick alcoholic doctor that goes ahead to explore the hilarious side of dysfunctional relationships, especially where bedroom matters are concerned.

An irredeemable alcoholic, Doc has just been dismissed from a hospital where he had worked for years. But all is not lost for the wacky man. A Mafia group gets a whiff of this dismissal and hurries to engage him.

To keep their clandestine operation secret, the wayward group kidnaps the doctor and turns him into their physician in return for regular doses of alcohol.
Among other things, the doctor must cure the boss of the Mafia group whose sex life is threatened.

Besides Mob Doc, the other 24 films are in various genres that include: Haunted, a thriller; Otto-Bloodbath a horror; Chasing Moses and Zainabu Rudi Nyumbani, a family drama. There are several comedies too.

Chasing Moses is about three men in an almost endless chase: here, a Mafia boss, a contract killer and a Moses are in action.


When Moses offends the Mafia boss, the boss orders his killing. Through this chase and revenge drama, viewers are transported into the world of evil through suspenseful scenes.

A year and half ago, Vivid Features decided to venture into local feature film production. Mr Kang'ethe says: "We saw a new and potential business area and decided to diversify from our traditional services; we wanted to grow." This is how Majitu came into being.


Earlier, Vivid Features had some experience producing their own feature film. This was five years after the unsettling 1994 Rwanda genocide, when former BBC reporter Nick Hughes decided to go back to the actual sites of the mass killings in Kibuye Village. This time, not just to shoot television footage but to capture the disturbing drama he had witnessed as a reporter.

Titled 100 Days (with alternate title A Hundred Days), the story revolves around two lovebirds - Bapiste and Josette - whose love for each other surpasses tribal realities.

When Bapiste asks her to sleep with him, Josette refuses. She wants to hold on until they are married. On the other hand, away from their imagination, evil plots that might bring the two apart are being hatched.


Powerful Hutu leaders

Powerful Hutu leaders have had enough of Tutsi rebels and call on all Hutus to kill their Tutsi neighbours. As chaos breaks out, the Tutsis flee and the two lovers are separated in the moving drama.

"As we shot this film, we learnt a lot," says Mr Kang'ethe. Vivid Features is a Kenyan broadcast production company that facilitated A Hundred Days.
"By the way, we do not intend to compete with Riverwood," says Mr Kang'ethe. "We are looking at the mass market that has been looking for good quality local films."

On matters of filming, Vivid Features is not coming to the set as a greenhorn.

The company has previously supplied manpower and equipment to filmmakers shooting in the region. It has managed staff and equipment for the CNN bureau for East, Central and West Africa, National Geographic, BBC and even Al Jazeera.

"Our decision to invest in this project is based on other things, like responding to local TV programming needs."

So far, the firm has spent about Sh3.2 million to produce the 24 movies. Equipment and technical personnel are in-house.

by Mwenda wa Micheni

First published, August 14, 2008, in Business Daily Africa (Nairobi, Kenya).