‘Rafiki’ Review: Falling in Love, Illegally

It was hard not to get swept up in the anticipation when “Rafiki” was shown last May at the Cannes Film Festival, the first Kenyan feature to be shown in the event’s official lineup. The film, a debut feature from Wanuri Kahiu, had just been banned in Kenya for its positive portrayal of homosexuality.

The ban has since been lifted, which is for the best in more than one sense. This exceedingly modest romance involving two young women — Kena (Samantha Mugatsia), who plans to go to nursing school, and Ziki (Sheila Munyiva), a free spirit who yearns to travel and who encourages Kena to set her sights higher in medicine — hardly seems designed to withstand outsize expectations.

The illegality of same-sex relationships in Kenya isn’t the heroines’ only problem. Kena and Ziki’s fathers are running against each other for a seat in the county assembly — which means the women’s being seen together, even chastely, raises eyebrows. (Kena’s father warns her about the optics for donors.) The film is sharp at rendering the hesitancy of their flirtation, as well as the forces — parental expectations, religion, an ever-watchful gossip — arrayed against them.

The drama’s initial delicacy makes the subsequent emotional and physical violence feel even more brutal — and the weaknesses of other characters appear all the more glaring (Kena’s father, separated from her mother, has shied away from telling his daughter he’s about to have another a child). At the same time, the movie’s dialogue can be earnest and blandly functional. This is a love story for the time, not for the ages.

Rafiki

Movie data powered by IMDb.com

Not rated. In English and Swahili, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 23 minutes.

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