Lesbian film Rafiki has shattered box office records in Kenya – after a government ban was lifted for one week only.
The lesbian love story from director Wanuri Kahiu debuted to international acclaim at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, but the film was banned in its home country after state censors took exception to the “homosexual” themes.
Under Academy Awards rules, submissions to the Best Foreign Language
Film category “must be first released in the country submitting it… and
be first publicly exhibited for at least seven consecutive days in a
commercial motion picture theater.”
The film is now again banned in the country, following the end of the
seven-day exemption – but in a final humiliation for state media
censors, it was revealed that the film dominated the country’s box
office in the period it was released.
Rafiki was the top performing film in Kenya for the week it was unbanned, edging out major Hollywood blockbusters The Nun and Night School.
The film grossed more than $33,000 in its week of release, with more than 6,500 tickets sold.
The start of the film was greeted by raucous applause at screenings,
while the crowds “laughed and booed” at the logo of the Kenya Film
Classification Board—the body that suppressed its release.
The re-imposed ban makes it an offence to even own a copy of the film in the country.
