The Boda Boda Thieves
Inspired by the 1948 film The Bicycle Thieves, The Boda Boda Thieves details a few days in the life of a poor 15-year-old boy in Uganda as he struggles to prove to his parents that he is worthy of their respect. After a series of poor decisions, he loses his father’s boda-boda (a motorcycle taxi) and has to retrieve it before his father is imprisoned by bailiffs.
The film was obviously shot on a shoestring, and it embraces this with the cinematography, and does a good job of employing a mockumentary style, with a constant camera sway and a good use of diegetic lighting.
Sadly, this subtlety is not matched by the storytelling or acting. The way the film unfolds its story in a non-linear way, presumably to create some tension or suspense, is ineffective and seems heavy-handed. The actors are largely unconvincing and sometimes seem to forget their lines. There were some glimmers of ability from a few of the supporting cast, which only made you wish they appeared for longer.
The post-production also leaves a lot to be desired. The editing is jarring, and often struggles to find a rhythm between cuts. On more than one occasion, there are even some blank frames between shot transitions. The sound mixing is off-putting, with a lot of unhelpful ambient that has obviously forced additional dialogue recording. The dialogue is mostly Swahili, but the subtitles are sometimes not present or not aligned with the on-screen speech, and when they are, they’re repeatedly an unreadable white against a white background and often contain errors. Any one of these problems alone would be enough to ruin a viewer’s immersion, but combined, they make the film very difficult to get through.
One really redeemable factor is the music. With songs by Peter Miles and a score by Graeme Lees, the mix of haunting classical guitar and driving contemporary reggae strike up a tangible atmosphere that really carries the endless montages and establishing shots.
A lot of what’s wrong with The Boda Boda Thieves is probably fixable, and there is potential lying behind it as a much shorter film, but as it currently stands, it’s not very successful.
Leo West
The Boda Boda Thieves does not yet have a UK release date.
Read more of our reviews and interviews from the festival here.
For further information about Berlin Film Festival 2015 visit here.
Watch the trailer for The Boda Boda Thieves here:
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