Wakaliwood is a dream of a young man that cames real. Twenty years ago, Isaac Nabwana was a young student with a very deep passion for cinema.
In his mind he wanted to create the first movies factory of the country, Uganda, at that time in the middle of a bloody civil war. He made it.Inside the slum of Wakaliga, one of poorest areas of the capital, Kampala, the director Nabwana realized in ten years dozens of movies with low budget. The first success was in 2010 when, with a budget of only 200 dollars, he realized “Who killed Captain Alex?”, the first ugandan movie with an international visibility and succes thank to the YouTube channel.
Called “the Quentin Tarantino of Uganda”, Nabwana creates simple stories with a mix of action, good messages and ironic sense of humor. Wakaliwood is not only a movies factory, but also an artistic and social experiment: working as actors, many teenagers from underdeveloped places of all country, keep clear of alcohol and drugs. They spends all days of the week training martial arts, creating equipments to use on set and playing under the eyes of slum’s residents. And for the foreigners who wants play a role, there is a special “Wall of fame”, or “Wall of deads”, a list of names from all the world of actors who inevitabily died (for fake) in their role, in one of the movies.
About Erberto Zani
Erberto Zani is a freelance photographer, journalist and photo books designer, based between Parma, in Italy, and Basel, in Switzerland. He worked as photographer in advertisement sector (1998-2004) and as journalist for the newspaper Gazzetta di Parma (2004-2007).Freelance since 2008, most of his works are focused on documentary-humanitarian themes. He cooperates with companies, magazines and humanitarian organizations, for photographs and editorial projects. Available for assignments internationally. [Official Website]