Clemence Nahimana, an actress, will soon be releasing her feature film ‘I Bwiza’, which seeks to highlight artists’ struggles and all they go through in their journeys.
Nahimana is a comedian best known as Feu Rouge (Feruje), a scriptwriter of a popular radio drama, ‘Musekeweya’, and trains the drama's players. She is also known as Maman Alphonsina in ‘Umuturanyi series.’
"The story is about Maya Gatoni, an artist who is saddened by the way up and coming artistes struggle to get to their maximum potential yet their managers are benefiting from their work. The artistes never get to any development while they inspire others all the way. Maya wants to fight for the artistes right though she is threatened by rich man, Myasiro,” said Nahimana during this film’s screening.
The movie will be released in December and its official trailer is already out. Christmas Ruth Kanoheli who is a female producer, now signed under IBISUMIZI Studio is a main actor of this movie and she also did the anthem song of the movie. An up and coming actor best known as Tajino in Inzozi Series is also an actor in this movie.
For two years, I Bwiza film was still under its production process because Nahimana couldn’t get enough money to run it, until last year when she got funding from Imbuto Foundation and Ministry of Youth.
Gilbert Sibomana who was part of the technical team of this movie said, "It was not easy at all, we had very limited time, budget and lockdowns due to Covid-19. We had to join efforts with so many people and everyone played a very big role to make it possible.”
Speaking to The New Times, Nahimana explained why she didn't act in this movie.
"I really had a lot of tasks in the making of this movie, from its idea, acting, directing, production, and all. I was behind everything, but again I wanted to give a platform to some other new talents to shine.”
During the lockdown, Imbuto Foundation and Youth Ministry announced that they would be funding talents and projects that might have been affected by Covid-19. Nahimana submitted her project and won the Rwf10,000,000 funding that she invested in this movie which was directed by Emmanuel Nturanyenabo (Noah).
Explaining why she named the film ‘I Bwiza’ Nahimana said, "The way scenes are planned, there is a representation of Rwandan culture which can attract many people to visit Rwanda, like Imigongo art and others. All these, plus the best acting skills in the film inspired the name ‘I Bwiza’ which means where to find beautiful things.”
Clemence Nahimana / Courtesy photos