By Farayi Mungoshi

FINALLY the shooting of the film Makunun’unu Maodzamwoyo ended earlier this week on Monday, November 23, almost three months after it began in Chihota.
A lot has happened since, with the bulk of challenges coming in the later part of the shoot after Fidelis Cheza’s passing on, where the team took almost a month to shoot just 10 scenes.
Many would say that is just two days’ work, what could have been the problem?
As is with most of our productions, projects and whatever it is we are doing, resources are a major challenge, but since this has become an excuse by most people I am not one to be found saying, ‘the economic situation’.
I refuse!
What baffled me was the power of art, film as well as television and its ability to manipulate real life situations even though it is supposedly fictitious – I will explain a bit later what I mean by that.
Dealing with people where matters of tradition are concerned is not easy; or when everything you are saying, be it art or a play, movie or drama starts depicting real life, especially where art clashes with tradition.
Oftentimes we hold cultural events and activities like plays, readings etc in a bid to uphold our traditional beliefs, thereby building a mentality not only in the viewer’s psyche, but also in the performer’s of self-value and a sense of belonging.
We also teach young ones through these activities, but when beliefs clash with what needs to be portrayed in a film we are found wanting.
While culture is dynamic, there are certain beliefs and moral positions we as Zimbabweans hold dear.
These are found in contemporary debates on the position of Zim-dancehall as a music genre and homosexuality as a human right, among others.
For example, being asked to lie down in a coffin and act dead meets with superstition.
This is something those in the West have no problem with, despite the colour of their skin, black and white alike, even some Nigerian actors have no problem with it, but for Zimbabweans it’s a no-no.
We would even ask the director if we could simply use a closed coffin instead.
Is it fear, superstition or lack of professionalism as actors?
Or maybe we have not just reached those heights of fully adopting personas of the characters we play.
I say this because on the night before we were to shoot a funeral scene in the film, we hired a coffin and brought it to camp and when I asked if we could put it in one of the rooms for storage till the shoot, everybody refused.
“It’s just a coffin guys, nobody has ever used it,” I said.
But they all refused.
“Kuzvishuridzira ka,” most would say.
Such was the case when we lost Cheza, who in the film was playing the role of Mushayazano, a father and husband who later dies and his remains are brought back home to be buried.
When the owners of the homestead we were using as Mushayazano’s home heard that he (Cheza) had died, they refused to let us use their premises for the funeral saying: “Tine urwere mumusha, saka if we let you shoot the funeral here and the sick person dies for real just like ‘Mudhara Danger’, it would cause problems with the rest of the family.”
It almost felt as if we were being held responsible for his death despite the fact that the book had actually been written 45 years ago.
Surely Dr Charles Mungoshi wouldn’t have prophesied that almost half a century later someone acting the role of Mushayazano would actually die during the shoot.
We had to find another location.
I was frustrated because we had to go back to the village head (sabhuku) to request for alternative land to shoot the funeral scene at extra cost.
“I understand where they are coming from, certain things are hard when it comes to our culture,” said our director of photography, Nick Zemura, after I told him we’d just lost our biggest location.
Thank God most graves are placed away from the homestead, so culturally speaking, our film was not compromised by this situation, but it did leave me wondering about the film industry in Zimbabwe.
It would have to take a courageous cast for certain roles the rest of us deem taboo if we want to paint a picture depicting real life.
Or is it better not to even try out such things for fear they might happen for real?
Some time back, Hollywood actor Heath Ledger died after failing to get out of character for the role he was playing as The Joker in the famous Batman movies.
There are also characters here in this country who end up getting caught in the web of role playing vis-a-vis real life.
One wonders then that while everybody else is entertained and educated by film and television, is it always good for those starring in the film?
Just some thoughts we ask ourselves in our quest to teach, entertain and educate.
Or are we all crazy and our culture and traditions are there to remind us that this is not child’s play.
Haasi mahumbwe?