Mandera bus attack movie
Watu
Wote
given Oscar nod
Kenyan movie Watu
Wote (All of Us) has
been nominated
for the 2018 Oscar
Awards in the live
action short film
category.
The film is based
on real life events
where a Muslim
man led fellow
Muslim passengers
in shielding
their Christian
colleagues from
being shot by Al-Shabaab militants.
The armed militants had attacked a
Mandera-bound bus near Elwak at
around 7am on December 21, 2015.
Salah Farah, a teacher at a local school,
confronted the militants together
with fellow Muslim passengers as
the attackers attempted to separate
Christian passengers and shoot them.
The group told the attackers to kill
everyone on the bus or leave them
alone.
B y F rancis M uli
received numerous
awards, including
a Student Oscar,
the German
Newcomer Award
for Cinematography
and first prize at
the Brooklyn Film
Festival.
B ased
on
true events
The movie is aimed at showing that
the difference in religious beliefs
should not be the genesis of hatred
and division in the modern world.
Directed by upcoming German
filmmaker, Katja Benrath, Watu Wote
was produced by Bramwell Iro and
Matrid Nyagah of Lightbox Africa
and Tobias Rosen from the Hamburg
Media School. The announcement
came shortly before the film’s Nairobi
premiere.
The Oscar nomination is the latest
honour for the film which has already
One of the film’s
producers, Bramwell
Iro, told DW about
the events that inspired the film. “The
story is a story about humanity. It’s
about people’s love for each other. It’s
based on true events. In December
of 2015 there was a bus attack on the
way to Mandera. And in this bus, Al-
Shabab militants got in and asked the
Christians to separate themselves from
the Muslims, so that they could kill the
Christians and let the Muslims go. But
what happened is probably something
that has not been recorded before.
The Muslims on the bus just said ‘no,
we’re not going to separate ourselves
from our brothers and our sisters.’”
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