Tug of War

A political coming-of-age love story set in the last years of the British colonial era on Zanzibar.

Denge, a young freedom fighter, meets Yasmin, an Indian-Zanzibari woman, in the middle of the night on her way to her wedding. Passion and revolution escalate. A young revolutionary and a runaway bride fight for forbidden freedoms in Amil Shivji's adaptation of Adam Shafi's Swahili novel. In this film adaptation of Adam Shafi's award-winning Swahili novel, set in Zanzibar in the 1950s, a romance is shaken by the rough waters of British rule and the militant liberation struggle of the locals.

Amil Shivji is a filmmaker based in Tanzania, his home country, and believes in using images to challenge the powerful, in particular deconstructing the urban facades of development and highlighting the strength and struggles of marginalised communities. His feature films have participated in prestigious festivals around the world. The latest feature film, Vuta N'Kuvute (Tug of War), is a story of love and resistance set in 1950s British colonial Zanzibar and premiered at TIFF'21. It won the Oumarou Ganda Award at FESPACO'21, a Special Jury Prize in Seattle, Golden Tanit in Carthage and is Tanzania's second submission to the Oscars®.