CANADa-based Zimbabwean film maker Moses Matanda, who is the director of the forthcoming feature filmtitled Chinhoyi 7, which chronicles the famous Battle of Chinhoyi that ignited the Second Chimurenga in 1966, has dismissed claims that he was struggling to wrap up the film.
BY WINSTONE ANTONIO
The film was initially scheduled for release in February, but the dates were then moved to August, with the producers saying they wanted the official release to coincide with Heroes’ Day commemorations meant to honour the country’s liberation war heroes.
Matanda told NewsDay yesterday that the release has been further hold up by the delayed importation of the software used in the production of the special effects as they wanted the movie to be a world-class production.
Special effects are the illusions of the eye used in digital filmmaking to simulate the imagined events in a story.
“We are going according to script as we do not want to release a mediocre production, remember Chinhoyi 7 is more of a national film so it must be a standard production that can be able to go international, that’s why we have combined local and foreign actors to enable us to portray the movie’s theme,” Matanda said.
“With this film, we seek to correct the misconceptions about the country’s liberation struggle by telling the story from a Zimbabwean angle as we want to market the nation as a safe tourism destination and correct wrong images that have been portrayed by the Western media,” he said.
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Matanda said if everything goes according to plan, they will be releasing the movie in December.
The two-hour-long film was shot using latest technology at different sites in the country to portray different events of the war that include Domboshava, Victoria Falls, Mutarazi Falls and other tourist destinations.
It features both international and local actors, among them Julian Shaw from Britain and Cynthia Stone from Canada, gospel singer Fungisai Zvakavapano-Mashavave as Sarudzai, a housemaid working at a Rhodesian army general’s house, poet Albert Nyathi as the late uMdala Wethu Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo and Edmore Sandiforo, popularly known as Chabvonga in the television drama series, Tiriparwendo.
