And Now For Something Completely Different
KAYAK THE KWANZA
W
Saj Sinniah
hen we hear people speak of hav-
ing an adventure, our minds tend
to go to places we have seen on film
and TV. We imagine high adrena-
line type moments or picturesque
views. What I had the privilege of
seeing today, truly defined an adventure. As it is a Friday
night, I pour myself a glass of wine, place myself on the
couch and hit play on Kayak The Kwanza. With a length of
54 minutes, it’s the perfect duration for my attention span
after a full week’s work.
The opening scene immediately grabs my attention – a
very picturesque view of a country in Africa. The words
“Written and directed by Oscar Scifadi” appear neatly at
the top of the screen.
A voice-over begins - “Hi I’m Oscar, in June 2016 I
travelled to Angola to meet up with my friend Alfie. To-
gether we completed the sourced amount of navigation on
the Kwanza river, a journey of over 1300 kilometres.”
Oscar introduces what’s to come in the documentary.
A few facts stand out, that had me very much intrigued.
They use the following in the same sentence to give you a
picture.
1. “Chased” and “hippos” (the word hippos is used so
many times, it is worth doing a drinking game around it.
A swig of your drink for each time Oscar or Alfie mentions
it)
2. “Detained” and “deportation”
R
E
V
The documentary is split into 9 parts. Each part depicts
the journey of our adventurers and while all are worth
talking about I won't ruin the flow of the story for you by
describing each however, I will say that one of the films
highlights is part 8, where our adventurers get arrested
and aren't able to film the outcome. What follows is a
South Park-esk artist impression of what happened during
this time. This is too good for words and complete with
impressions of cartoon police officers and immigration
officers, this section is a treat, hilarious.
Spoiler alert
They make it to the end.
For a documentary that only goes for 50 minutes, Kayak
the Kwanza is equipped with a good punch of personality.
Oscar’s style of narration is both quirky and hilarious and
I
W
the format of the documentary complements his sense
of humour. I laughed at so many peculiar moments that
were not kayaking related, that make me wonder what Os-
car and Alfie would be like if I hung out with them at our
local pub.
I have so many questions I would like to ask them like;
what was travelling like in TAAG airlines? Where did Os-
car buy his Air Jordan's that replaced his lost boots? Was
the fried chicken for the last meal any good? What did
the dehydrated food taste like? Is Oscar still with his girl-
friend?
When the end credits commence, I am filled with hap-
piness and empowerment. A journey has been captured
around moments in the life where two people whose
strength of passion got them through. While there were
struggles of physical damage and run ins with the law,
combined with serious uncomfortable conditions, the two
adventurers barely complained. They embraced adven-
ture and shared a common goal.
It is a remarkable effort by Oscar to have this documen-
tary available for the world to see. I hope I get to meet him
one day.
E
S
Kayak The Kwanza will soon be available as a book, a
diarised version of this fantastic film. It will certainly
make for an interesting read and help a great organisation
in The HALO Trust.
More information of availability of the book and The
HALO Trust can be found at -
www.KayakTheKwanza.com
TRAVERSE 114