The much anticipated Kenyan film VEVE, from the producers of Nairobi Half Life (One Fine Day Films and Ginger Ink Productions) premiered to a full audience at The Junction yesterday evening.

It was a colourful event graced by the ‘who is who’ of the countries film industry and people dressed for the occasion.

SYNOPIS

VEVE follows the lives of multiple characters trying to find themselves in a world of political intrigue, revenge, love and longings for success complemented by the background of the thriving yet unregulated VEVE business.

Amos (Lowry Denzel Odhiambo), an ambitious politician, is running for another term as Maua MP whilst facing his opponent Wadu (Abubakar) in the extension of his veve empire. His wife Esther (Lizz Njagah) discovers the true nature of his affairs and seeks solace in Kenzo, a conflicted young man out to seek vengeance for his father’s death.

Sammy (Conrad Makeni), Amos’ right hand man, has to choose between being loyal to his work and being a caring father to his 12-year-old son Kago. Maua Veve Farmers want to form a union to force Amos to pay decent prices for their veve. Clint, a hedonistic wannabe documentary filmmaker meddles too far, blind of the dangers he is putting himself and others into.
All are in search of purpose not knowing that their destinies are entwined in more ways than they can imagine.

UPS

Even though VEVE’s story was not as enchanting as Nairobi Half Life, atleast in my opinion and those of a few guests in attendance whose opinion we sampled, the story was good in its own way and the much talented actors owned the story to the core. It was really impressive that the actors tried to incorporate the Ameru local dialect which went along way in actualizing the plot setting.

DOWNS

The story flows well but comes to an abrupt ending which appeared all rushed and it’s only after credits starts flowing that the audience realizes that the film had come to an ending.

Just like Nairobi Half Life, Soul Boy and Something Necessary, VEVE is a product of a workshop program by One Fine Day Films in collaboration with Ginger Ink Productions, where a chosen group of talented African filmmakers are guided and mentored by international filmmakers on aspects of film production and at the end of the programme are required to produce a film telling their own African stories.