And you thought you had it hard. Imagine the life of a Black Albino in Africa. Caught in a cultural trap between prejudice & superstition; in East Africa, not just ostracized but hunted, like an elephant for its tusks, by traders supplying body parts to Witch Doctors who claim it confers magical powers. Well, you’ll still have to imagine it, since filmmaker Noaz Deshe is either unwilling or unable (I vote unable) to get much across in this first feature. With pointlessly obscuring camerawork and disjunctive editing, you can barely make out the main characters before Albino Dad is savagely attacked by machete wielding murderers and his wife sends their Albino son off to live with her brother (?) in the big city to eke out a living searching land fills for metals & computer parts. But even relative safety proves elusive as the boy’s uncle also lives under threat from violent gangs working for loan sharks out to collect what he owes on his truck. As presented by Deshe, it's less story & character than narrative roadblock. Too much lost thru over-active camera work and excessive editing of already confusing raw footage. The storytelling clears up for the finale after another Albino is killed: vigilante justice, lynching, a chance for personal revenge. But hasn't the young man seen enough killing? Ethnographically fascinating; cinematically obscured, the film, meant to be challenging, comes off as wasted opportunity.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: An award-winner for co-writer/director Deshe, ten years on and nothing new yet released.
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