Poetria La Muse, a short film by Nina Salim Umutesi, was screened for the first time in Kigali after a couple of months being showcased as a stage play. The screening took place on the evening of December 30. According to Umutesi, the 17-minute short film features a goddess, Poetria, who bestows inspiration to poets, adding that through watching the film, one gets challenged to question different norms that revolve around what they are allowed to do or not – all tailored figuratively through poetic words. She described that she made the movie poetic because she wanted to promote poetry through cinema after realising that cinema is an assemblage of all forms of art hence the movie would nurture people’s interest in poetry. “As a poetess,” narrated Umutesi. “I wanted people to embrace poetry in this movie and I am glad to mention that they have felt it. I am also happy that it challenged their thinking.” She revealed that she and her crew decided to screen the movie locally, so that she can get insights from local audiences before taking it to international festivals. Robert Karara, a film Director and Cinematographer who mentored Umutesi during a 20-day film workshop called “Girls in Cinema” where “Poetria La Muse” found a home, said that he was first hooked by Umutesi’s script as well as the idea it portrayed. “When I read the script, I could picture how the movie it would produce would come out with a great and unique image and require an exceptional location. It is the first Rwandan movie to be shot in the cave; others came last. Every image we took during the shooting was great, artistic and sight-pleasing,” he said. He declared that the movie’s style is also unique in Rwanda, urging Umutesi and her team to drive the movie to international festivals, local TVS and screen it in different public spaces. Malaika Vanessa Uwishaka, the Assistant Director of the movie added that the movie also empowers women figuratively. “It also talks about women and highlights how some are undermined as it features a goddess, from a different world, who loves poets and gets punished for that because she was not allowed to. As a woman, it makes you wonder if there are things you are not allowed to do and yet you are a person too and that makes you ask yourself why you can’t fight and prove that if you do those things, there is no problem,” she said. This movie, she continued, strengthens us as women and compels us to go for what we need. Elvis Irumva who has also watched the movie called it extraordinary, declaring that it has taught him to not to be afraid to do things by himself, to go for what he loves and persist until he attains greatness. He declared that the film also urged him to keep showing himself to the world and let his light shine bright as well as to allow humanity to be there for everybody. Umutesi’s dream for Poetria La Muse is witnessing it reach as many people as possible for them to be inspired.
