Pricilla Mukokobi 

Anticipated to premiere in May this year, LIFE, which is short for ‘Living in faith every day’ is a movie made by Namibians, using Namibians for Namibians. 

Shot in the Havana location of Windhoek in January this year, the feature film aims to teach one and all how to avoid prejudging and misinterpretation as different people have different problems. 

“People don’t understand someone’s pain unless that someone tells you their problems and this film tells you not to jump to conclusions,” said director of the film Blos Amutenya of Optimistic Pictures. 

He told VIBEZ! the film will benefit the Namibian people and is proof that the country can produce and tell her own stories. 

Amutenya noted that because locals are exposed to films from other countries so much, he decided to tell their own stories that people can relate to. 

He said it took a few months to develop the script and like other big projects, also experienced some challenges, citing shooting during the rainy season. 

“However, on the other side, it came with blessings as the sun was not too harsh and the clouds diffused and it provided clear cinematic shoots for the film,” he said. 

“Other challenges were shooting on location in Havana and we had to pull electricity from far places, but we managed. One thing I learned is to work with time; time won’t wait for you and it will never be on your side if you do not plan properly.” 

The film features multi-talented artist TopCheri, Carter Hartz and James Paulus. 

Optimistic Pictures is the funder and recruited young Namibian people who studied at Namibian institutes of arts and media studies. 

“We want to give a shout-out to our actors and actresses for their amazing job. We cast them and they all fit the roles and we gave them scripts and no one disappointed. We are blessed to have an amazing team, and it is an interesting movie to watch. Overly 30 people worked on the movie,” he said. 

Monica Pineas, better known as TopCheri, said it was an honour to work with Amutenya and the team. 

“I loved it and I was very grateful to play the main role in the movie. The experience was out of this world because they really treated me like the superstar that I know I am. They really did the most and I learned a lot from this movie,” she said. 

TopCheri advised that if one is passionate about something, then one should go for it, and shouldn’t limit themselves from better opportunities because they might be the next TopCheri of the country. 

“Normalise networking with people; we all have a different calling. This movie really taught me a lot and casting for this movie was the best thing ever,” she said. 

Amutenya plans a red-carpet premiere at either the Grove Mall or Maerua Mall cinemas. 

It will also be screened in Swakopmund, Ongwediva, Rundu, Keetmanshoop and Mariental. 

- epicnakwezy@gmail.com 

'LIFE' out soon