Michael Usi shoots Kamuzu film in UK
Actor Micheal Usi is tracing the founding president Kamuzu Banda’s footprints overseas with the filming of the biographical film in Bedford, UK .
The shooting, which was twice halted by orders from above, attracted about 10 000 people in August when whenUsi, whose showbiz moniker is Manganya, mimicked the fallen leader’s crop inspection tour of Chitakale Tea Estate and a rally at Mulanje Hospital.
The film Usi started shooting in Blantyre two years ago continued last week under the directorship of seasoned British filmmaker Jamie Hammond of Creative Bone Film Company.
In an interview, Usi explained:
“Mark Richard, one of the actors in the award-winning British film Bad Mouth, took part in the production. He took the role of guard commander alongside a Romanian actor Timothy Diaconescu and Zimbabwean Tam Moyo,” said Usi, who has been silent for a while to pave the way for his PhD studies at Bedfordshire University.
According to the actor, other support actors also came from Zimbabwe, the UK and Romania with Malawian Paul Kanjewe managing logistics for the film.
The shooting took place in Swan Hotel in the heart of Bedford.
Conspicuously missing during the overseas set was Ruth Simika, who plays the role of Kamuzu’s official hostess Cecelia Tamanda Kadzamira, as well as other locals who have been part of the production since 2011 when police halted the shooting on Masauko Chipembere Highway in Blantyre.
Usi however, said this does not mean that he has replaced the locals with the metropolitan cast.
He said they are all part of a grand plan which he could not disclose in the interview because “it is too early”.
