Type - Short Fiction
Genre - Psychological Drama
Director - Willie Owusu
Her Moves, His Thoughts (2007) was produced when I was 23 years old and I only got to watch it online a decade later, after deliberately looking for local shorts (a thing that not everyone does), which says a lot about Kenyans’ accessibility to films made by their very own … I have seen this film twice, the second time being a refresher for this review. This is typical Owusu-style of directing fiction and if you are not familiar with his work this film maybe a good start, then Flight Path before going on to the rest.
The cast, Nini Wacera and Aleks Kamau pull off their roles quite well and ‘bad acting’, at the very least, is not one of the bad things about this film. I was also kind of surprised by Nini’s above-average dancing skills which helped carry the narrative with choreographed intervals throughout the story, a style which the director chose for building emotional tension between the couple. The short is about how psychological turmoil often plays itself out differently between couples yet, ironically so, the tension is caused by a relationship they both share. As always, Owusu likes dragging out scenes minutes on end (not a bad thing necessarily) with moments of silence or minimal dialogue perhaps as a method of luring in the audience emotionally. Alternately, however, I would have had a 12 to 15 minute short film had I directed the same script - again, purely a stylistic preference.
The cast, Nini Wacera and Aleks Kamau pull off their roles quite well and ‘bad acting’, at the very least, is not one of the bad things about this film. I was also kind of surprised by Nini’s above-average dancing skills which helped carry the narrative with choreographed intervals throughout the story, a style which the director chose for building emotional tension between the couple. The short is about how psychological turmoil often plays itself out differently between couples yet, ironically so, the tension is caused by a relationship they both share. As always, Owusu likes dragging out scenes minutes on end (not a bad thing necessarily) with moments of silence or minimal dialogue perhaps as a method of luring in the audience emotionally. Alternately, however, I would have had a 12 to 15 minute short film had I directed the same script - again, purely a stylistic preference.
A major limitation of this very artistic production could have been the budget, but that said, I would have wanted to see better sets and even a less wooden sequence of dialogue perhaps sewn together by throwing in one or two more supporting characters (i.e. a flashback of the implied first boyfriend/husband to Nini’s character, and so on and so forth). That said, not too much to add here, but please do watch it for yourself and share your reviews and comments.
And oh, there’s a rated R scene so best not to see this with children below 18 years old.
And oh, there’s a rated R scene so best not to see this with children below 18 years old.
Likewise, if there’s a movie (either local or foreign) that you want us to review please do let us know because chances are we have seen it thrice (unless it sucks) :-)
Rating - 3/5 stars
Review by Robert Mũnũku
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