Who Killed Captain Alex?

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Movie
Original title Who Killed Captain Alex?
Country of production Uganda
original language Swahili
Publishing year 2010
length 64 minutes
Rod
Director Isaac Godfrey Geoffrey Nabwana
script Isaac Godfrey Geoffrey Nabwana
production Isaac Godfrey Geoffrey Nabwana, Alex Hofmanis
music Kizito Vincent
cut Isaac Godfrey Geoffrey Nabwana
occupation

Kakule Wilson - Alex
Emmie Bbatte - Video Joker

Who Killed Captain Alex? (Eng .: Who Killed Captain Alex? ) is a Ugandan action film from 2010 . The low-budget film , which cost the equivalent of around 200 US dollars in the slums of Kampala , was shot by Ugandan filmmaker Isaac Nabwana , who wrote the script, directed, produced the film and programmed the special effects . According to self-promotion it is “Uganda's first action film”.

action

The brother of a Ugandan mafia boss who heads the violent drug ring Tiger Mafia is arrested by the army. When the gangsters attack the army camp where he is being held, the officer on duty, Captain Alex, is killed. His brother, a master of kung fu , swears revenge and must prevent the Tiger Mafia from bombing Kampala with military helicopters in retaliation.

The film is inspired by everyday life under the rule of the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin . But although (or rather because) he has a multitude of very bloody shootings and martial arts fights, the main tone of the film is rather comedic. This is ensured by the so-called "Video Joker", who, as an off-speaker, comments on the action scenes with deliberately little seriousness (see the riffing at Mystery Science Theater 3000 ) like a video game.

background

In 2005, the then 32-year-old Isaac Godfrey Geoffrey Nabwana founded a big martial arts fan that Ramon Film Productions : namesake were his two grandmothers Ra chel and Mon ica. In his home town of Wakaliga, a poor district of Kampala, he made short films and video clips with extremely limited resources (ie budgets in the single- or double-digit US dollar range) depicting his love for action and kung fu scenes could. After making about 20 short films, he used the term Wakaliwood (a suitcase word from Wakaliga and Hollywood ) to describe his works. After receiving positive feedback on his films through viral marketing on YouTube , he decided to make his first longer film, Who Killed Captain Alex? . He received support from the American Alan Hofmanis, who emigrated to Kampala after a life crisis to work with Nabwana. Together they began filming Who Killed Captain Alex? with a budget of the equivalent of $ 200. Therefore, various challenges had to be solved creatively:

  • In order to get hold of film weapons , toy weapons were converted, weapons and ammunition dummies were carved from wood or assembled from bulky waste. The bazookas seen in the film essentially consist of pans and plastic pipes. To z. B. to build a dummy minigun with rotating barrels, were u. a. a discarded engine, the handle of a motorcycle handlebar, the housing of a loudspeaker and water pipes welded together.
  • All actors were amateurs and wore their own clothes. Nabwana regretted that due to the patriarchal distribution of roles in Ugandan society, he could only use a few female actors.
  • The green screen consisted of several green carpets that were put together. A jack served as a camera tripod .
  • For the artificial blood, red food coloring was dissolved in water. The squibs filled with this fake blood consisted of condoms that are given out free of charge by Ugandan hospitals. In the past, cow blood was used, which caused some actors to have stomach problems and one to contract tetanus .
  • The PC on which the film was cut and processed consisted of discarded, internally dusty second-hand parts that were overheated a few weeks later. Operating the PC was a matter of luck, as there was sometimes no power available for days.
  • Due to the special effects, which were groundbreaking for Ugandan standards, Nabwana was often accused of being a witch doctor .

Nabwana, who witnessed Idi Amin's reign of terror , believes that although his films contain many action scenes, they are ultimately so harmless that even "small children" can watch them. In response to Western criticism that such films are tasteless in a crisis area, the American Hofmanis says that Africa is “more” than just catastrophes conveyed by the media, and compares the film with the Indiana Jones series.

In 2015, CNN called Nabwana the "Ugandan Tarantino ".

distribution

After the film was completed, Nabwana self- burned the film on hundreds of blank CDs and sent out their own actors to sell the CDs directly on the streets of Kampala. According to Nabwana, "more than 10,000 CDs ... with a profit of 15 US cents each" were sold, so that the cost of 200 US dollars was brought in many times over. The team was under great time pressure when it came to the sale, as, according to Nabwana , due to rampant product piracy in Uganda, it would take “only a week” before so many pirated copies were in circulation that no one would buy the original CDs. It is now available for free download on its own website. In 2015 the Director's Cut was published.

Reviews

“You see the complete lack of production, and you notice blood splatters and special effects like from Microsoft Paint ... The filmmakers seem to know that they can hardly keep up technically. So while the actors take their roles seriously, a 'Video Joker' cheerfully comments from the off. The plot is paper thin, but I was entranced by the action scenes and the enthusiasm of the film. With a budget of only 200 US dollars, everything looks ridiculously cheap, which, in conjunction with the amateurish but passionate actors, makes for enthusiastic fits of laughter at every shootout. The kung fu scenes look amazingly good too. Who Killed Captain Alex is fun and inspiring that a handful of amateurs from the slums of Uganda with extremely limited resources can make such a silly but very entertaining film. "

- Lucas di Quinzio

swell

  1. ↑ a b c d e A Ugandan Filmmaker's Quest to Conquer the Planet with Low-Budget Action Movies , vice.com
  2. ^ A b After Bollywood and Nollywood, Uganda Brings 'Wakaliwood' ( Memento from June 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), Ugandan Post
  3. ↑ a b How a Ugandan studio made a viral kung fu film ( Memento from June 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), Time Out Shanghai
  4. ↑ a b The New Wave of Ultra-Violent Ugandan DIY Action Cinema , vice.com
  5. ↑ a b The director who makes viral action films for under $ 200 , cnn.com
  6. ↑ a b c After Bollywood and Nollywood, Uganda brings 'Wakaliwood' , yahoo.com
  7. ^ Who Killed Captain Alex (2010) , mondoexploito.com

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