How Musician Bobi Wine Fights Tyranny With Love

Documentary “Bobi Wine: Ghetto President” facilities on a person’s pursuit of freedom and justice for his nation, however on the movie’s coronary heart is a love story. Selection speaks to the filmmakers.

The movie, directed by Christopher Sharp and Moses Bwayo, and produced by Sharp and Oscar-winner John Battsek, follows the try by musician Bobi Wine to topple the repressive regime of Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni.

Sharp has a private connection to Uganda: each his father and he had been born there, and he spent a big a part of his childhood within the nation. He met Wine, whose actual identify is Robert Kyagulanyi, in 2017, simply after the musician had develop into a Member of Parliament.

“I used to be simply stunned by him: his optimism, his willpower, his bravery. After which, his wonderful spouse, Barbie… I simply felt like I’d by no means met anybody like them earlier than,” he says. “I frolicked with him and Barbie, and stated: ‘We’ve simply received to make a movie about you guys.’”

Sharp began the mission with a British cameraman, Sam Benstead, who determined to give up after a brief time period, and Benstead was changed by an Italian cameraman, Michele Sibiloni, who additionally stood down. Lastly, Sharp was launched to Bwayo, who caught with the duty to the top, at nice private value to himself. Bwayo says of his predecessors: “Due to the regime and the way far they go together with the torture and intimidation, due to a few of these points, these guys couldn’t stick with it with the mission.”

“Bobi and Barbie simply gave us full entry,” Sharp says. “There was actually nothing they didn’t allow us to movie. We shot 1000’s of hours of footage, after which spent two years within the chopping room attempting to work out what movie we had been going to make.”

The movie follows Wine as he steps up his campaigning in opposition to Museveni, culminating in his bid for the presidency itself within the election held in January 2021. Alongside the way in which, he and his supporters in his Nationwide Unity Platform social gathering, a part of what Wine dubbed the “Folks Energy” motion, had been subjected to repeated detentions and assaults. A crackdown by the police and military on anti-government protests resulted in scores of deaths.

Central to the movie’s story is Wine’s relationship together with his spouse Barbie, and their kids. “We clearly wished to present Barbie and the youngsters as a lot house as potential. We didn’t need it simply to be a form of political drama about one other despot. We wished it to be rather more private,” Sharp says.

This choice meant that the documentary was much less hard-hitting than it might have been.

“When Bobi noticed the movie, he stated: ‘You made it not look that unhealthy. There’s so little violence in it,’ ” Sharp says. “We filmed individuals who’d had their fingers chopped off, tongues chopped off, eyes gouged out, crushed. And in the long run, we took a choice to essentially inform the story by Bobi and Barbie and people individuals round them. We thought that’d be extra impactful, nevertheless it doesn’t do something to indicate simply how brutal [the regime is] and the way so many unhealthy issues occur to lots of people round [Bobi and Barbie].”

Sharp pays tribute to Bwayo, who he says was “unbelievable” and “put himself in loads of hazard.” However Bwayo prefers to precise his gratitude for the chance to inform this story. “It’s been fairly a journey, and I have to say, it’s been a blessing being a part of this as a result of I imagine Bobi Wine and the Folks Energy motion got here at a time the place Uganda wanted a voice like his,” he says. “Bobi Wine actually appeals to the most important portion of our inhabitants, which is the youth.” Greater than 77% of the Ugandan inhabitants is below the age of 30.

He provides: “The inhabitants [overall] has been oppressed for a very long time. They felt like that they had no voice or place in politics; [the country is] economically divided, proper now. They really feel like, sure, he speaks for them, and stands up for them.”

Though Bwayo feels an affinity for Wine and his spouse – “I received to study that, sure, that is truly a narrative price telling, and fell in love with Bobi and Barbie, and their story,” he says – he’s stored a distance from the marketing campaign itself, though that hasn’t saved him from paying a value for his affiliation with them.

“From the beginning, after all, it was a really aware choice to not develop into an activist myself, or develop into a narrative myself,” he says. “However that stated, truly, the stuff has occurred to me myself. I imply, I’m in Los Angeles proper now. I can’t dwell in Uganda anymore due to this movie. Not in a foul approach. I admire the very fact I’m a part of this movie, and it’s a sacrifice, and a really aware choice that I made. As a result of change doesn’t come simple. There need to be sacrifices and to be trustworthy, if you wish to be a automobile [for change], if you wish to be concerned in change… after all, you can’t be reckless, however you must put your life at stake or [put yourself] in these conditions to impact change in locations like Africa and Uganda.”

The specific threats to Bwayo had been “a number of,” he says, however he’s additionally been bodily attacked and detained. He and his spouse are within the technique of making use of for asylum within the U.S. “We couldn’t dwell in Uganda anymore. I’ve been shot within the face; I’ve been arrested; I’ve been locked up for a few days. I’ve been adopted, intimidated.”

Nonetheless, he considers himself fortunate as a result of no footage has been launched, till now. “Fortunately, once we had been making this movie, we hadn’t put out something [online or on television]. So, this actually stored me protected, as a result of the regime didn’t see something actually out.”

Nonetheless, “protected” in Uganda is a relative time period. He provides: “Journalists, and anybody in Uganda who works to show the regime, you’re a risk on to the institution.” As such, they’re topic to intimidation and assaults. “I imply, I personally was shot within the face. If it wasn’t for the digicam I used to be holding in entrance of me, I most likely would have misplaced my eye. Good right here [he points to a scar]. My jaw could be shattered, or … I don’t know.” He was shot on Nov. 6, 2020, and was arrested across the finish of February, starting of March 2020, he provides. “Moses and Bobi and all these guys are simply off the size courageous,” Sharp says.

Bwayo says he had the possibility to give up the mission however selected to proceed. “Increasingly, I acknowledged that as a Ugandan I wanted to say one thing, and I wanted to be a part of this time. Bobi represents a revolution, proper?”

He refers back to the “lawlessness of the state” and the willingness of the army to shoot individuals who dare to protest on the road, as they did when Wine was arrested on Nov. 18, 2019. “Folks misplaced their lives, [including] girls, kids, individuals who weren’t truly on the streets protesting. So, the repression actually it’s at some extent the place you select to both… it’s do or die, you already know?”

Bwayo took nice care to get the footage in another country, sending a drive to Sharp each couple of weeks through associates. “I might have a number of [memory] playing cards whereas filming, and I’d hold them in locations the place they won’t discover them. And initially I by no means stored the footage with me. I’d give it to different individuals, and other people had been travelling to get it to Chris. And the web in Uganda is horrible, so it was very laborious to ship it by the web. There was intimidation as nicely, so even individuals I knew had been avoiding me, so there have been only a few individuals in my circles that you can belief.”

Sharp was touring out and in of Uganda himself, and dealt with all of the filming outdoors the nation, together with Wine’s journeys to Paris, Berlin and New York.

As talked about earlier, on the coronary heart of the movie is the love story between Wine and his spouse, however that wasn’t the plan at first of filming. “It got here out of the chopping room to be trustworthy. We actually didn’t wish to do only a political battle: this type of courageous man going up in opposition to the dictator,” Sharp says. “And once we began going by the rushes and organizing them, we realized the extra fascinating story was their love story, and seeing the ache by them, reasonably than exhibiting individuals who’ve had their fingers reduce off. And it simply felt a lot extra poignant. The large goal for me and Moses is that we simply need individuals to comprehend what actually goes on.”

In January 2021, the Ugandan electoral officers declared Museveni because the winner of the presidential contest with 59% of the vote, and Wine with 35%, though Wine alleges widespread voting fraud befell.

Sharp additionally alleges that the election was fraudulent. “The Individuals weren’t in a position to ship screens, nor had been the European Union. All of the journalists turned up. They stated: ‘That is fraudulent. This man’s been robbed, the individuals of Uganda have been robbed,’” he says.

The response from Western leaders to the repression has been muted, and the U.S. and the European Union proceed to present hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to the Ugandan authorities in assist. The place that cash finally ends up is a moot level. The truth that Museveni has despatched 1000’s of troops to Somalia has positioned him as a possible ally for the West within the area, which can affect how severely they problem his brutal habits at house.

The military is the important thing to Museveni’s grip on energy, Bwayo says. “The army is sort of a software for [Museveni] to guard himself in opposition to the individuals, and the longer he entrenches himself in energy, the longer he’ll develop into an issue for the area, for the world itself,” he says.

“So I hope that folks will see that this authorities isn’t one to be trusted. For a very long time, he’s been saying issues and promising issues that don’t occur. Uganda isn’t a democracy. It’s a faux democracy. They arrange elections, not for elections to occur, however simply to indicate the world that there’s a democracy, nevertheless it’s nothing like that.”

“Bobi feels the West has let him down as a result of he’s for democracy, doing all the things straight,” Sharp says. “And he actually thought that the West would get behind him. They usually didn’t. He’s an optimistic man, so he picks himself up. But it surely was a large disappointment for [Bobi and Barbie], as a result of he thought that folks truly could be happy to have a democratic course of, and he thought it will matter. And it didn’t, and it was laborious for him.”

He provides: “When Bobi noticed the movie, he stated: ‘You’ve made it so unhappy.’ [I replied:] ‘Bobi, it’s unhappy. You gained the election, and also you had been robbed. Your entire associates had been locked up in army detention for six months. A great deal of your mates died, suffered, and it’s unhappy. We will’t spin it another approach. We’ve simply received to inform it as it’s. You’re left standing and also you stick with it, however we are able to’t make it a cheerful ending, as a result of it’s not a cheerful ending.”