Playing Warriors

Film

by Rumbi Katedza

Details

Zimbabwe / 2011 / 78mins / Romantic Comedy / English and Shona

When twenty-something advertising executive Nyarai finds out that her best friend Nonto is getting married, she and her lawyer friend Maxi are sent into a frenzy thinking that their time to find “Mr. Right” may be running out. Determined to marry for love--despite the insistence of her meddlesome mother that she hurry up and settle down--Nyarai sets out to find a modern man as strong and dependable as the mythical traditional warrior. Reminiscent of a Zimbabwean Sex and the City, director Rumbi Katedza’s delightful debut feature is a smart and insightful comedy about the struggle of young African women to balance modern lifestyles with the pressures of family and tradition.

About the Director

Rumbi Katedza

Rumbi Katedza is an award-winning writer and filmmaker who has lived in the USA, Japan, Italy, Canada, the UK and Zimbabwe. She has also worked as a radio presenter/producer on the popular former Zimbabwean station, Radio 3. Her articles have been featured in numerous magazines including Vertigo, AV Specialist and Hype!, and her fiction writing has been published in Women Writing Zimbabwe, the BTA/Anglo-Platinum Winners Collection and Illuminations. Over the years, she has worked in production management on several film and video productions with companies from around the world. She was Distribution Manager at Media for Development Trust, responsible for a catalogue of over two hundred films and, later, she became Director of the Zimbabwe International Film Festival, before going out on her own as a producer and director of narrative and documentary content through her company, Mai Jai Films. In addition to co-producing and line producing projects, Mai Jai Films also runs Postcards from Zimbabwe, a children’s audio-visual and life-skills training project, and ZimbabweFilm.com, a comprehensive Zimbabwean film promotion website. Rumbi Katedza has directed a number of music videos for some of Zimbabwe’s top artists. Her film credits include Danai (2002) for which she was nominated for Best Director at the National Arts Merit Awards, and the award-winning films Asylum (2007), Tariro (2008) and Big House, Small House (2009). Her full length feature film Playing Warriors was released in 2011. Rumbi Katedza is a part-time lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, in the department of Theatre Arts. She is a judge and monitor at the National Arts Merit Awards, responsible for monitoring new film and TV productions throughout the year on behalf of the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe. She has also lobbied for the Zimbabwean government to actively support the film industry. Learn More