RWANDAN SHORT FILM ‘Rusaro’ is among over 1, 000 movies contesting for a staggering USD250,000 (Rwf250 million) awarded by My RØDE Reel film contest.

Regarded as the world’s largest short film contest, My RØDE Reel has over the past seven years been providing a global platform for filmmakers to gain exposure, offering grants and scholarships, and giving away tons of RØDE microphones and filmmaking gear.

‘Rusaro’ is a production of Nkubiri Kagabo, a young but experienced filmmaker who has been working on the project for over a year.

"It’s a project we’ve been working on for a long time. We wanted to highlight Rwanda’s incredible journey in the fight against gender-based violence,” he said.

The film was shot by a five-member crew, led by film director Nkubiri Kagabo, and a cast of community volunteers through the most hectic rainy season but still managed to create magic.

The three-minute short movie, which is a mythical and cultural representation of Rwanda, is inspired by a story of a young woman who wants to become a boy to avoid violence from her father who refuses to take pride in having only daughters.

In the movie, the father is abusive and violent towards his young daughters because he could not get a son.

One of his daughters decides to go and see the witch doctor so he can help her tranform into a boy to avoid her father from abusing them.

"When you look at the situation of the 1980s where gender-based violence was a big concern for women, we felt we could do this short movie as part of celebrating the milestone that our country’s government has achieved in tackling gender-based violence and promoting gender equality,” Nkubiri explained.

The filmmaker is also the man behind the highly-anticipated ‘Kigali21’, a film that tells the modern lifestyle of young people in their 20’s living in Kigali, another project he has been working on a few months after attending DSTV’s intensive trainings from the Hollywood and Bollywood film experts in Zambia.

More than 20,000 films from over 100 countries worldwide have been submitted to the global competition since its inception in 2014, with RØDE awarding over $3.5 million in prizes to both emerging and established filmmakers.

The grand prize winner is chosen by the jury while more prizes will be given out to movies in eight different categories including the Best Drama, Best Comedy, Best Animations, Best Behind The Scenes, Best Tik Tok, Best Documentary, Best Sound Design, and Most Popular Film (will be decided through voting)

Winners at the My RØDE Reel 2020 editions shared a whopping USD1 million, the biggest cash prize ever offered so far in a short film competition.