COMEDIAN, Lawrence Simbarashe’s fans may have to wait a little longer for his “resurrection” on screen, as the distribution of the long-awaited Mapeto — a movie expected to improve the veteran actor’s waning fortunes — has hit a snag, NewsDay can reveal.
BY TAFADZWA KACHIKO
The movie, which also features another fading comedian, Richard Matimba of Zviri kumbofamba sei? fame — was initially scheduled to be premiered last year, but has been stalled, as the production team seeks a strategy to evade possible piracy.
Producer, Malon Murape told NewsDay yesterday that although the film’s editing has been finalised, they were not able to bring a few copies to the market, as they needed to do bulk production, as a way of sidestepping piracy.
“We finished shooting and editing. Now we have to go to the next stage, which is marketing and distribution, but there are no funds for that. We are failing to produce DVDs in large quantities. If we just produce 100 or 200 copies, the movie will be pirated. If that happens we will get peanuts, so we need to produce and distribute larger quantities,” he said.
Murape said Mapeto’s trailer, with close to 6 000 YouTube views, had already been pirated and fears were that the actual movie was likely to suffer the same fate.
“Just imagine if a trailer can be pirated! What about the film itself? We received messages from people saying we have your disk but it’s incomplete and we had to explain to them that it’s just a trailer. That movie is full of fireworks,” he said.
Murape said they will seek a lifeline from potential funders and look for adverts to raise funds for the film, which was written by Lloyd Shumbayaonda.
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“We are seeking donations as well as companies that are willing to have their adverts on the DVD and if we get something like $5 000 we will release the film in April,” he said.
Simbarashe plays the role of Uncle Joe, a wealthy businessman, and Uncle Ritchie, is the main character played by Nigel Mapeto, a dubious pastor, who commits adultery and dips his hands into the church coffers.
The pastor’s successful ministry with branches all over Zimbabwe, eventually collapses after the man of cloth contracts HIV.
