Farai Sevenzo

Farai Sevenzo was born in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1964. After attending a drama course at the University of Zimbabwe, he went on to earn a degree in Film Studies at Stirling University, graduating in 1988. Returning home, Farai worked as a journalist, a film reviewer, and writer of training videos and of social issue videos for community education. He was also assistant director on Jit (film), in which he also acted. After completing the feature script Precious, he won a British Council scholarship to attend the NFTS directing course for a year. Rwendo is the fruit of that training. Farai then worked on a screen adaptation of his own short story, Murima / In the Dark, about post-independence Zimbabwe.^[1]

Filmography

• Jit (film) (1992);
• Rwendo/The Journey (1993);

Monica, a young African nurse, takes care of an elderly dying man. Their relationship is fraught with racial tension, the reasons for which emerge as Monica discovers that she and he are linked through sinister history. Rwendo means “journey,” and for young Monica the revelations of the past and the crises of the present add up to a life-altering emotional excursion.

• The Last Picture (1997);
• Zimbabwe 2002 (2002);

Sevenzo, a journalist and filmmaker, returns to Zimbabwe after a 15-year absence to see how his family responds to and participates in the 2002 elections. Despite global condemnation of Robert Mugabe, he finds no easy consensus amongst ordinary Zimbabweans.