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Shamaika

Tafadzwa Zimoyo Arts Reporter
Call him a Jack of many trades and a master of all and you will not be found on the wrong side of your description. This rightly applies to Naim Keriah, the Algeria-born software wizard whose passion for software engineering, fashion photography as well as film saw him relocating to Zimbabwe when he was 23.

Naim, who is popularly known as “Shamaika” after the name of his production house, said he breathes and lives film. All his films open with cloud scenes, which have become the trademark for his production house.

It was his sojourn to Zimbabwe that saw his stars smiling on him in all the endeavours he has ventured in, thus in the process establishing himself as one of the best in the creative arts industry.

To those not in the know, Naim has worked with the top echelons of Zimbabwean modelling as well as the acting scene, with names like Malaika Mushandu, Lisa Morgan and Rumbidzai Mudzengere among others. And yes, the list is endless, with film practitioners such as Joe Jangu and Mark Mandisoul also figuring in the line-up of personalities he constantly rubbed shoulders with.

“I was born in Algeria and then moved to Zimbabwe at the age of 23. Although I am a software engineer by profession I have drifted away from that line of work. I fell in love with fashion photography at the age of 17 when I went to France, something which led me to work with a lot of models in my early years. In Zimbabwe I have had the honour of working with Miss Tourism Zimbabwe with models like Rumbidzai Mudzengerere, Malaika Mushandu and Lisa Morgan to name just a few,” he said.

Being the creative guy that he is, Naim could not get enough on his platter and the film bug bit him.

He said he has always believed that his greatest passion lay in film.

“I then moved to Promobile, a marketing and promotions company and worked as their creative director. But I was pulled towards film when I came across the film ‘Zambezi’ which was written by Mark Mandisoul where he was also the director of photography. My background was photography but I re-channelled my ideas and turned them into motion pictures. I later worked under the same title with Joe Jangu in the sitcom “Salon dot com”. After gaining vast experience as a director of photography I then leapt and ventured into writing, directing and producing my first short film, ‘Africa’ in which I worked with Kudzai Sevenzo, Eddie Sandifolo and Stephen Chigorimbo,” explained Naim.

Although the film was good, according to some film analyst, he never submitted it to film festivals.

“I never sent it to festivals because I did not think I was ready for that but the response from Zimbabweans was amazing in terms of its quality and the storyline. It was during a production for a national TV show where I met Simon Mungazi. We then started working together, with Simon as my understudy, until, the student became the master,” he said.

Naim said his greatest desire is to do an action film which he hopes will put Zimbabwe on the world map of film.

“I want to put Zimbabwe on the map through film festivals. Therefore I chose to do an artistic film that gave birth to ‘Rujeko’, which happens to be the first non-dialogue full length feature in Africa. In essence it is abstract art at work. Being a non-dialogue film ‘Rujeko’ throws a lot of subliminal messages the audience has to pick up on as the story unfolds,” he said.

His love for film has also seen Naim starting his own film production company which focuses on promoting African films by African filmmakers to the international world.

“This film production company is aimed at pushing the African film industry on a global scale and help change the perception of the African film medium,” he said.