Tsavo (The Iron Snake)

In the organizer's words:

The setting sun turns red as Nandi king Koitalel Arap Samoi discovers a huge iron serpent on the horizon. It winds menacingly through the steppes and hills of the East African landscape, leaving a trail of devastation and death in its wake.

In 1896, the colonial power Great Britain began building a railroad in British East Africa (now Kenya) to connect the cities of Mombasa and Nairobi and strengthen its economic and political control over the Nile Valley.

For the British, railroad construction meant power and wealth, for the indigenous tribes it meant oppression and suffering. However, historiography usually only passes on the perspective of the colonial powers, who declare themselves to be the supposed saviors and promoters of progress, while the voices of those affected are silenced.

Ugandan director Duncan Lubwama shows what happens when these voices are allowed to be heard in a documentary reconstruction of history, which he turns into a physical and sonic experience from the perspective of the indigenous Nandi people at the site of the events - the Tsavo region in Kenya.

In German and English

Price information:

reduced 10€