‘Rafiki’ Director Wanuri Kahiu To Helm Romantic Film ‘Covers’ For UniversalPosted by Wilson Morales
November 19, 2018
Source: Deadline
Deadline is reporting that Wanuri Kahiu, whose LGBTQ movie Rafiki became the first movie from Kenya to be selected to screen at the Cannes Film Festival, is set to direct Covers, a romance set in the Los Angeles music world, for Working Title and Universal.
She was signed after an international search for the job to direct first-time screenwriter Flora Greeson’s screenplay, which Universal has acquired preemptively. Working Title’s Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner will produce and Alexandra Loewy will executive produce. Universal’s EVP Production Erik Baiers will oversee.
Kahiu’s Rafiki was banned earlier this year in Kenya in response to its LGBTQ narrative; based on the short story Jambula Tree by Ugandan writer Monica Arac de Nyeko, the film is a love story between two girls who have to choose between happiness and safety in a country where homosexual activity is against the law. When it was banned in Kenya, they tweeted: “Anyone found in its possession will be in breach of law.”
After Kahiu refused to alter the film and it was banned, the Kenyan High Court granted a temporary lift to allow the movie to have a seven-day Oscar-qualifying run in Kenyan cinemas. The film also was picked to screen at the Toronto Film Festival, London Film Festival and AFI Fest, among others.
Kahiu was born in Nairobi and studied producing and directing at UCLA’s school of theatre, film and television. As a director her short films include Ras Star (06) and Pumzi (09). Her features include From a Whisper (09), Africa First: Volume One (10), the documentary Who Am I? (16), and Rafiki (18)
