John Mubayi
MASHAVA – National Arts Merit Awards (NAMA) winning director, Sydney Taivavashe has produced a film for Great Zimbabwe University (GZU) titled ‘Solo naMutsai’ which is scheduled to premiere on May 19 at Charles Austin Theatre in Masvingo.
Solo naMutsai traces the journey of two village lovebirds who are given scholarships to further their education at a university and how that dramatically changed their way of life.
It was produced by Nelned Pictures and GZU Films in collaboration with Jubilee Arts.
Taivavashe, who won a NAMA award early this year with his film ‘Seiko’, showed excitement with an opportunity to work with GZU.
“Film is generally not taken seriously because it’s still a growing industry in Zimbabwe so for the university to take their time to commit themselves to the project was very exciting. I realised that GZU has a lot of talented actors who even match international standards,” said Taivavashe.
“I feel humbled to work with GZU and I want to applaud the university’s lecturers and management for coming up with the initiative. I have no doubt that the film will go places and will certainly put GZU on the international map,” he said.
The film stars a number of students among them Nyasha Warinda and Buhle Buyeza Ndhlovhu who respectively star as Solo and Mutsai.
GZU theatre and performing arts lecturer Julia Yule, who is the film’s executive producer, said the film is a must watch as it explores life’s ups and downs, achievements as well as how students respond to external forces.
“We are trying to talk about student life at the university, the ups and downs, the love life, achievements, how they interact and respond to external forces, different classes and how they handle pressure, and above all, marketing GZU,” said Yule.entertainment
