‘Hear The Sound Of AFRICA'

Natasha Karugire’s debut film on the Ugandan bush war of the 1980s is about 27 guns and the 41 men who fought it, including her father, the country’s president Yoweri Museveni.

- Methil Renuka

WHEN I FIRST MET HER at the Kampala Serena Hotel in Uganda exactly a year ago, the polite, soft-spoken Natasha Karugire, the eldest daughter of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, had been visibly anxious about her debut film, 27 GUNS, the shooting of which had just begun with an all-Ugandan crew and cast.

She spoke passionately about the project, which literally had her living in the bush in Luweero, located two hours by road from Kampala, at the time for the filming.

Premiering in Uganda and South Africa in September, 27 GUNS recreates Uganda’s bush war of the 1980s, and Luweero is significant as this is where her father mostly went into hiding as part of the National Resistance Army (NRA). All they had was 27 guns, 41 men and hope.

Karugire says: “I believe it’s our time as Africans to stand up. It’s time for us to sing our own song, in our own unique voice; to tell our stories with our own words. I hear the rumblings of the awakened roar of a collective people. The world is going to hear the sound of Africa.”

The mother of four, who scripted and directed the film, under her production company Isaiah 60, says of the cast, including the lead actor, Arnold Mubangizi, who plays the young Museveni: “A big number of our cast had no prior acting experience, yet they gave amazing, very real performances.” She reveals more to FORBES WOMAN AFRICA ahead of the film’s screening:

What is the scale and scope of 27 GUNS? How long did it take to film and what was the investment?

27 GUNS is an independent film on a larger scale than the ordinary indie. So our budget is indie but the story is massive. You can imagine the struggle to marry the two aspects. Very much like the pan-African spirit in this film, our financial and human resource support is entirely from within the continent, and mostly from Uganda.