3 more international screenings for B’ella

Local movie, B’ella, continues to hog the international limelight with three big opportunities in Europe this summer.

This comes after the movie, produced by Taonga Taddja Nkhonjera, was screened at the Zanzibar Film Festival in June, in Poland for its Europe premiere this month and then the Czech Republic at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

After these screenings, B’ella hits the silver screens in Norway, France and Mexico.

The 15th Bergen International Film Festival 2014 in Norway is the biggest film festival in the Scandinavian Region, according to online sources.

“The 15th Bergen International Film Festival 2014 is honoured to invite B’ella film to participate in the official selection of the upcoming festival. The 15th BIFF takes place from September 24th to October 1st 2014 at the Bergen Kino, one of Norway’s leading cinemas, which is the owner of BIFF,” reads an invitation signed by the festival’s director Tor Fosse.

The  festival  was  launched  in  2000 is  well  attended  by  the media,  strongly  supported  by  the  Norwegian  film  distributors and  the  industry  as  such.

Last  year, the invitation says,  the  festival  had  more  than 50 000 admissions,  and  the  large  number  of  films  makes  BIFF the  biggest film  festival  in  Norway  and  one  of  the  biggest in  the  Nordic  region.

“I am looking forward to have B’ella screened at the biggest film festival in the Scandinavian region. After that it will be France and Mexico with details to be made available later. Wherever I have gone to, people are talking about Malawi because of the movie. For example, In Karlovy Vary International Film Festival where B’ella had its European premiere, we had an astounding reaction from the sold out Congress Hall,” said Nkhonjera in an interview.

The film follows the story of a girl, B’ella who lives at Chazunda in Blantyre and goes to school with her friends Umboni, who is HIV positive and Dama, who loves to look good.  B’ella finds herself repeatedly in conflict with Kalilole, the self-imposed school beauty who constantly bullies and abuses Umboni and B’ella, being such a strong, no-nonsense character does not take kindly to this.  And in standing up for her friend, Umboni, she gets into altercations with Kalilole that sometimes turn physical.