Couple uses popular themes to take giant leap in Kenyan film industry

Last year, filmmaker Alex Konstantaras brought to the cinema House of Lungula which made good returns on investment.

With a tried and tested plan, this year he brought another film called Fundi-Mentals which also has enjoyed a good commercial success and was screened in Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa.

Under the production house Historia Films, which he founded with his wife and renowned actress Lizz Njagah, he has over the past four years made successful films like Me, my Wife and her Guru (2010), The Return of Lazarus (2012) and an online satirical talk show series In the Forest.

Historia Films takes into consideration the packaging of the promotional materials — from the trailer used on the social media to build a buzz on an upcoming film and poster to pull people in.

And what connects all this is controversy — their movies might seem to be classified as “adults only” but in reality are comedies depicting the everyday lives of Kenyans.

“To make a movie a commercial success or popular in the Kenyan sense it has to have the following — comedy, sex, famous actors and controversy. Sex here I mean insinuated not real scenes that would make you uncomfortable,” says Konstantaras.

He took his first step into the Kenyan film industry with the 2007 launch of Jitu Films, a venture of Vivid Pictures to mass produce and distribute locally made movies.

He met Nick Hughes, Vivid Pictures chief executive, in the UK where Konstantaras was studying for a Masters degree in film at the International Film School of Wales.

“It was a good model as we produced 24 films in less than a year and selling through the supermarkets ensured good distribution. Our first film Mob Doc sold 60,000 copies and others followed quite closely like Zainabu Rudi Nyumbani and Chasing Moses,” he recalls.

Konstantaras says selling a DVD at Sh60 and later Sh100 was still affordable to many Kenyans. However, the model was no longer feasible after the government imposed a new tax.

“You need a lot capital upfront. The good news now is that you can duplicate DVDs locally unlike before. During the Jitu years we used to make the DVDs in a factory in Greece and bring them over,” he says.

“The bad news is that supermarkets are not open to being distribution points for movies anymore.”

After the closure of Jitu Films, together with his wife Njagah they decided to launch their own production house, Historia Films, and focus on comedy movies. At Historia Films, Konstantaras works as a director, scriptwriter and editor.

“There is plenty of local drama on television, comedy is a good way to get Kenyans to come to the cinemas to watch a movie,” he says.

Last year, House of Lungula, which he co-wrote with Njagah, won the best script category at the Kalasha Awards.

Fundi-Mentals’ script, based on the misadventure of fundis (artisans) and their clients, was written from real life observation and shared experiences from friends and family. As the scriptwriter he had to come up with humour that would appeal even to viewers abroad.

“I have come to discover that Kenyan humour is very one sided like accent humour, viewers out there would not understand it,” says Konstantaras.

“I had to take a Kenyan situation and try and fit humour that all sort of viewers would laugh to and it was not all slapstick.”

His work bore fruit as Gerald Langiri, one of the leading actors of the movie, was nominated in this year’s Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards (2015) for best actor in a comedy category.

“The industry has taken some steps forward but not as many. If we do not pick up the speed, we will never catch up,” he says.

“Nigeria has already started many higher quality pictures as well as cinema films. It is no longer those juju movies you see on television anymore.”

He says digital migration of TV would boost demand for local content, but adds that he is not sure how producers will overcome the threat of piracy rampant in the industry — the reason why Kenya’s cinemas are empty.

However, Me, my Wife and her Guru and The Return of Lazarus are available online on buni.tv. For a monthly subscription, one can watch these movies and other African productions.

“At the moment Historia Films is finishing four commissioned movies and the plan is to continue making at least one in-house movie a year. We are also currently developing our first TV series,” he says.