Banned Kenyan Gay Movie ‘Rafiki’ to Premiere at Cannes Festival in France

A Kenyan lesbian movie Rafiki, which was last week banned by the Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB) over its gay content, is set to premiere at the Cannes festival in France this week.

Cannes Festival is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France and previews new films of all genres, including documentaries from across the world.

Rafiki, which means “friend” in Swahili, is a film adapted from an award-winning short story called Jambula Tree by Ugandan author Monica Arac de Nyeko.

The movie is about two young girls whose parents are political rivals and is the the first-ever Kenya-made film to premiere at the world’s most prestigious cinema festival, Cannes. The two go ahead to fall in love despite the fathers being bitter political antagonists.

It will be shown in the “Un Certain Regard” category, reserved for upcoming directors or unexpected or marginal themes.

Its ban in Kenya was announced by KFCB CEO Ezekiel Mutua, who argued that its contents contravenes the morals and cultural believes of Kenyan people.

“Our culture and laws recognise family as the basic unit of society. “The (board) cannot, therefore, allow lesbian content to be accessed by children in Kenya.”

Mutua asked its director, Wanuri Kahiu remove the “offensive classifiable elements”, including “romantic scenes” and “a happy ending”.

Expressing her disappointment about the ban, Kahiu said: “I’m really disappointed because Kenyans already have access to watch films that have LGBT content, on Netflix, and in international films shown in Kenya and permitted by the classification board itself.”

“So to then just ban a Kenyan film because it deals with something already happening in society just seems like a contradiction,” she added.