Ugandan low-budget studio turns colonial relic story into superhero film

In the Kampala suburb of Wakaliga, a film studio known as Wakaliwood makes action movies with local actors, props built from scrap metal, and homemade digital effects. Founded by Harriet Nakasujja and Isaac Nabwana, the studio became known for "Who Killed Captain Alex?", a helicopter-and-kung-fu blockbuster reportedly made for only a few hundred dollars.

The studio gained international attention in 2017 when its work was included in the German art festival Documenta. That exposure led to bigger budgets and new commissions, including "Kibuuka Omumbaale", a film made for London's Chisenhale Gallery and named after a mythical warrior of the Buganda kingdom.

The relic's journey

In 1906, an Anglican missionary removed Kibuuka Omumbaale's relics from Uganda to Cambridge University. They were returned the year before Uganda's independence in 1962 — a precedent for restitution that British museums have rarely followed since with other looted objects.

The film turns this history into a superhero story: a young man visiting the relics becomes possessed by the warrior's spirit, gaining the power to fly and shoot death rays from his fingers, while an evil doppelganger embodies the warrior's darker side. Journalists and museum curators weave in historical context, while the president eventually sends in helicopter gunships before the conflict is resolved through reconciliation.

Two soundtracks

The film follows a Kampala cinema tradition in which a "video joker" (VJ) provides a running live commentary alongside the regular soundtrack, mixing jokes and asides. This marks Kampala's first English-language VJ, who repeatedly reminds viewers that "this is how we watch films in Uganda".

The film is described as an example of a fearless, hybrid, popular art form that confronts difficult colonial history while remaining genuinely entertaining.