Nairobi Half Life - 1+1=0.5
Quick Thoughts: Nairobi Half Life (2012)
Made by David "Tosh" Gitonga, this is the Kenyan film of the series.
Nairobi Half Life is a crime film driven by character, one that follows a poor boy from the village to the big city where he descends into a life of crime whilst simultaneously pursuing his dream of becoming an actor. This is a particularly unique film for it deals not with just a descent into tragedy or corruption - this kind of narrative has been played over many times over, Scarface being one of the most obvious examples of this. Instead of paralleling Scarface's character arc away from potential, virtue and prosperity and into tyranny and depravity, Nairobi Half Life gives our character a double-life, one in which he is succeeding in chasing his dream, and one in which he betrays that positive, humble pursuit. It is this central contrast of two personas that makes this such a worthwhile film and brings about a story whose central commentary is on the conundrum of choice. Our own lives, our emergence into existence, in Nairobi Half Life, is the only thing that we ever take without choice. All else is up to us. Yet we abandon this perspective all too easily. It is this act of neglect, of taking life for granted and assuming that we do not chose, that is shown to cleave existence itself in two; for our main character, it is his neglect of his own free will that has him become a criminal alongside an aspiring artists. He makes the choice to become each of these people, yet becomes the former in assuming, or rather in pretending, that he has no choice; in becoming two he then halves his moral existence, as the title of this film seemingly implies. This thematic dissection of the drama our main character manifests provides a highly provocative commentary on crime and responsibility, and thus it reshapes the purpose of many crime films, allowing the audience to not descend into the chaos that the characters do, instead, puts them in a position of perspective; as our characters fall, and we watch them from above, we provide the moral standard to this narrative and see our main character struggle to claw back up to it.
This story is brought to the screen with superb acting that never melodramatises and so often gives the tone a light touch, never too grim or unrealistically dark. Furthermore, the direction and editing are strong, making this, on the whole, a brilliant film. I then end with a firm recommendation that you check this out.
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Nairobi Half Life is a crime film driven by character, one that follows a poor boy from the village to the big city where he descends into a life of crime whilst simultaneously pursuing his dream of becoming an actor. This is a particularly unique film for it deals not with just a descent into tragedy or corruption - this kind of narrative has been played over many times over, Scarface being one of the most obvious examples of this. Instead of paralleling Scarface's character arc away from potential, virtue and prosperity and into tyranny and depravity, Nairobi Half Life gives our character a double-life, one in which he is succeeding in chasing his dream, and one in which he betrays that positive, humble pursuit. It is this central contrast of two personas that makes this such a worthwhile film and brings about a story whose central commentary is on the conundrum of choice. Our own lives, our emergence into existence, in Nairobi Half Life, is the only thing that we ever take without choice. All else is up to us. Yet we abandon this perspective all too easily. It is this act of neglect, of taking life for granted and assuming that we do not chose, that is shown to cleave existence itself in two; for our main character, it is his neglect of his own free will that has him become a criminal alongside an aspiring artists. He makes the choice to become each of these people, yet becomes the former in assuming, or rather in pretending, that he has no choice; in becoming two he then halves his moral existence, as the title of this film seemingly implies. This thematic dissection of the drama our main character manifests provides a highly provocative commentary on crime and responsibility, and thus it reshapes the purpose of many crime films, allowing the audience to not descend into the chaos that the characters do, instead, puts them in a position of perspective; as our characters fall, and we watch them from above, we provide the moral standard to this narrative and see our main character struggle to claw back up to it.
This story is brought to the screen with superb acting that never melodramatises and so often gives the tone a light touch, never too grim or unrealistically dark. Furthermore, the direction and editing are strong, making this, on the whole, a brilliant film. I then end with a firm recommendation that you check this out.
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Previous post:
The Jungle Book - Live-Action?
Next post:
How Cinema Works
More from me:
amazon.com/author/danielslack
