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Yeuakai Karengezeka Arts Correspondent
“Two Villages Apart”, a Zimbabwean film won the Best Zimbabwean Film Award at the just ended International Images Film Festival for Women.
Produced and directed by Donald Mabido, the film won US$500. It features popular musician/actress Pauline Gundidza, Prince Makanda, Lewis Mukanda and Dereck Nziyakwi among others.
It is about a young national cricket player James who is diagnosed with an incurable disease. He recoils into the solace of his rural home where he discovers with shock that rural youths do not know anything about cricket.

From this point on, he sets out to teach youths this sport unaware that the youths have been torn apart by political differences and are rivals.
Although the three principals of the Government of National Unity have shaken hands in a unity accord, people in the two villages are still far from forgiving each other.

But James through cricket unites the two villages but unfortunately he dies two years later due to heart failure and peopel from both villages come to mourn him.
Mabido said it was a great honour for their movie to be recognised.

“We are honoured for having been part of the IIFF and this was our first feature film project and it being nominated and receiving  an award is testimony of the huge potential young Zimbabwean film-makers possess.

“The industry continues to be riddled with funding constraints but the mere presence of other projects by young film-makers in this year’s edition of the festival rekindled the flame of hope for the industry,” he said.

The crew consisted of students from The Zimbabwe film and Television School for Southern Africa.
But this assertion seems to be countered by the fact that this is the only one Zimbabwean film that won anything out of more than fifty films that were screened from various parts of the world. This is despite there being some categories specifically reserved for Zimbabwean productions.

According to the jury they did not award the Best Zimbabwean Documentary and Zimbabwean film with Best Sound because none of the films presented were eligible for prizes.

It is a wake-up call for local filmmakers to produce work that meets basic international standards, so that they can get recognition.