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Film Image by Frances Bodomo
The
film begins in darkness where we hear static, and then the voice of an American reporter who tells us of the moments before Neil Armstrong and his crew depart into space, headed for the moon. The first image we encounter however runs contrary to these words and is somewhat unexpected.
A group of men stand in wait in a a deserted land. Matha, our female protagonist appears to face them. The words of the reporter in that moment are transmuted into the body of this young woman who is about to re-engineer history.
Exploring
space travel born from Africa. 17 year old Matha Mwamba is being prepped for the ambitious task of being the first astronaut to land on the moon. Her success would place Zambia at the forefront of a feat desired by both the U.S.A and Soviet Union. She carries the hopes of her country and people as she endeavors upon this task.
As she undergoes the different forms of training there is a continuous chant that urges her on and a spectacularly dizzying shot of the scenery as she is thrust down from the inside of a barrel at the top of a hill. The Bantu 7 rocket sits high above, ready for her to buckle in and lift off.
On
base camp, the team forge ahead with their efforts of building a space suit as Matha reflects upon her impending journey. The group cannot contain their excitement in this remote location that feels forgotten.
As night falls Matha glimpses the moon through her telescope...the time has come. A solitary being who seems doomed never to return, even to possibly perish in flight, she dons her helmet and bravely enters the rocket, her cat in hand.
Like
a shooting star the Bantu 7 rises up in the sky, to the amazed silence of the team that stand aside and watch. It is unknown whether Matha lives to set foot on the moon, or becomes a martyr to the aspirations of her people. Either way, her sacrifice is awe inducing to the exiles who remain behind.
A time piece shot in monochrome and set in the late 1960s, the imagery exports us from known reality into an obscure and fantastical world. The effect is like sitting at the periphery or edge of practicality into the surreal where ingenuity and imagination take hold. The
wonder that unfolds can only be likened to the dreamlike quality that an artist like Salvador Dali conjures, pure magic.
Film stills courtesy
Bodomo,
N dir 2014. Afronauts. Zambia
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