Martin Mhando
Barbarao, Amandina Lihamba, Samahani Kejeri, Waigwa Wachira
112 mins
2000
TanzaniaUSA
15
English; Swahili
Digital
Part of the Women's Stories from The Global South (& To Whom They Belong) Season
Dr. Asira travels to Tanzania for a residency at a psychiatric hospital where meets Samehe, a patient whose complete silence and withdrawal troubles everyone she encounters. Through
Asira’s healing methods, the women forge a connection that breaches the confines of time, history, and faith.
Collaboratively adapted by Martin Mhando and Ron Mulvihill from a story by Queenae Mulvihill, Maangamizi: The Ancient One explores the breadth of African consciousness and spiritual heritage and serves as a powerful meditation on the toll of displaced history and an essential work of Tanzanian cinema.
The film went virtually undistributed across Tanzania in the 2000s due to red tape around distribution, but is now seeing a second life upon its 20th anniversary through recent efforts by a local collective to circulate the film through informal and creative means.
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