Kenyan film Bangarang nominated for Atlanta Film Festival awards 2023
- 07 Sep 2023
Whenever the name of baby Samantha Pendo is mentioned, soothing memories of the little angel fill the hearts of many Kenyans.
The six month old infant was beaten to death by anti-riot police who raided her parent's home in Nyalenda Estate Kisumu, to flush out protesters during the 2017 post0election violence.
To this day, Baby Pendo remains, strangely, the face of police brutality in Kenya.
But six years after her death, a film inspied by the events taht led to her death continues to win accolades from Africa and beyond.
The film, called Bangarang and dedicated to baby Pendo, has been nominated for more than 40 awards, the latest being Atlanta Film Festival, which takes place in Atlanta, USA, between 21 September and 8 October.
When the idea of writing the film came to him after the brutal death of baby Pendao, Robin Odongo was a littled scared because of the sensitivity of the issue at the time. It was a subject that most peoiple did not want to talk about.
In an interview with the Nation, Odongo admitted that he is still surprised by the overwhelming response the film has received since its official premier in 2021.
"Being nominated for the Atlanta Film Festival awards is one of my big achievements, I pray that we win and bring the award home," said Mr Odongo.
The film is already available on international platforms such as Netflix, Amazon, VIU, a South African platform, and MyMoviesAfrica, a Kenyan platform that can be accessed globally.
Locally, the film has been shown on Kenya Broadcasting Corpooration (KBC), Mnet Movies Africa and a number of local televesion stations.
The self-taught scriptwriter reveals that even baby Pendo's parents have been touched by the film and are happy that their little angel's story has been told to the world.
"I wrote four films before Bangarang, but they didn't do so well. This is the first time I have won awards outside Kenya," he says.
Odongo says the idea of making a film about the aftermath of elections came to him after he lost three close friends during the 2007 PEV.
Later in 2013, Odongo was again caught up in the violence in Kisumu, suffering a serious injury to his right hand after being hit by a speeding car in the chaos.
Four years later, while working as a junior staff member at the Aga Khan Hospital in Kisumu, Odongo came across a baby fighting for its life in the hospital's intensive care unit.
The following night, when he reported for his night shift, he stopped by the ICU, but the bed was empty - six-month-old baby Pendo had died.
"She was a beautiful baby and did not deserve to die, I realised that a lot of things had happened amidst the chaos but never made it to the mainstream media, the best way I could address this as a filmmaker was to make a film inspired the young girl's story," said Mr Odongo.
It took the hospitality management graduate six months to write the script and another three years to shoot it due to financial constraints.
For a 30-day shoot in Kisumu County, the filmmmaker needed Ksh 12 million, while he was earning a monthly salary of sh 15,000. In 2020, Mr Odongo, successfully applied for a grant from the Kenya Film Commission (KFC) under the first cycle of its film.
