Schood days movie review

Multi-talented Kendall Kamwendo (remember the music duo Simon & Kendall?) has unleashed on us a movie that is a breath of fresh air. School days brings to the fore the evil that is teasing and bullying of newcomers in secondary schools. Anyone who studied in a Malawian secondary school in the 80s and 90s (and indeed in the new millennium) will have a vivid recollection of what they went through. I myself recall how one young man blew a burning candle into my face. Thanks to blinking, the hot candle wax missed my eyes and landed on the eyelids. The man forgot the episode long ago, and now proudly boasts about how he and I “have been friends from back in our school days.” 

School days is extremely effective in exposing how this evil plays out in schools. Characters such as Phwedo and Chuksy show absolutely no mercy towards Form 1 students.  

The good: 

The movie does very well in capturing the stripes of Malawian life in many of its colours. We see a peri-urban settlement and dormitories that are quite dilapidated. Chuksy, Ras, Phwedo, Judie and others congregate in some rickety shack to drink their future away while smoking weed. Nothing is varnished. 

Every actor put in their best effort, as though they have had years of experience acting on camera. They came across as real and deeply invested in what they were doing. My favourite actors are two: Mphatso, whose transformation when drunk is total and convincing, and Leticia, who plays the role of Mphatso’s friend. She comes across as so real and her acting is heartfelt. Even when the headmaster breaks the news of Mphatso’s death, her mourning, though just a glimpse, seems genuine. 

Aspects that could have been done better: 

What is the story? That teasing led to the death of a form 1 student? Or that a teacher was sleeping with a student? Or simply anecdotes of how teasing played out in a school? What was the conflict? From whose point of view do we follow the story? There was no clear build-up to a climax. From scene 1 up to the 34th minute, all we see is bullying after bullying and no storyline emerging. 

The bullying was overdone and sometimes too harrowing and off-putting. The scene, for example, where Phwedo throws the student with disability off his wheelchair was gut-wrenching – which would all have been OK if there had been some kind of conflict leading to the scene. But there is none, just a random act, as were many of the others. Yes, teasing and bullying needed to come out, but not at the expense of critical elements of storytelling, such as conflict. 

I wish the characters were a bit more well-rounded. In storytelling, one assumption is that no human being is 100 percent good or 100 percent bad. That complexity needs to be reflected in a character. Chuksy and Phwedo come across as just bad. There is no single thing they do that shows their soft side as human beings. This makes their characters – well-played, no doubt – less than three-dimensional.

In sharing my thoughts, I am mindful of the fact that there are severe budget constraints for film-making in Malawi. I hear they pulled this off with a mere $10 000. Some of the shortcuts taken are, therefore, understandable. 

All in all, this is a remarkable step we need to build upon as a nation for our film industry to grow. Big investors, like Afrexim Bank headquartered in Cairo, are now willing to invest huge amounts in film-making. Film-maker Kendall Kamwendo will have learnt valuable lessons from this, which he might wish to take into account when he embarks on his next undertaking. 

A huge congratulations, Kendall and everyone who took part. n

—This entry was written by Onjezani Kenani and it first appeared on his Facebook page.