MAANGAMIZI may be a modest production in terms of expenditure, but the storyline, the performances and some cases, just the faces make it memorable.
Initially it's the story of two disparate women. One is an African/American doctor starting an internship in a Tanzanian hospital. The other is a middle-aged tribal woman who hasn't uttered a word or a sound since surviving a horrific loss as a little girl. When the American doctor arrives to meet her new patients in a women's ward for the mentally ill, all patients but one are active, giggling live-wires. The patient in question sits transfixed, alone and ignored, stock still as if frozen, staring out a window on the far side of the room. Intrigued, the American doctor walks over to her. The camera shows what the patient sees outside: an ancient shaman woman standing in the long grass, staring intensely back up at her.
The doctor looks out the window. There's no one there. Then, as the patient turns slowly, silently, in her chair and looks up, the shaman's face is superimposed over the doctor's.
The shaman is Maangamizi (the 'Destroyer'), an ancient spirit whose presence becomes more and more real and who's powers begin to draw the other two closer and closer together in a series of supernatural experiences rooted in both of their tragic pasts.
Even the title Destroyer becomes debatable because in this case what is being destroyed via visions, dreams, memories and tribal magic results in healing and liberation.
Just because the film focuses on women doesn't make it a 'feminist' tract. That observation does this movie a disservice. One of the most positive presences here is the doctor's male colleague.
Anyone who longs for films trying to honestly and originally convey something about what it means to be human (combined with a tingling spine) should give MAANGAMIZI a chance. Maangamizi may haunt her subjects, her namesake may well haunt you.
Initially it's the story of two disparate women. One is an African/American doctor starting an internship in a Tanzanian hospital. The other is a middle-aged tribal woman who hasn't uttered a word or a sound since surviving a horrific loss as a little girl. When the American doctor arrives to meet her new patients in a women's ward for the mentally ill, all patients but one are active, giggling live-wires. The patient in question sits transfixed, alone and ignored, stock still as if frozen, staring out a window on the far side of the room. Intrigued, the American doctor walks over to her. The camera shows what the patient sees outside: an ancient shaman woman standing in the long grass, staring intensely back up at her.
The doctor looks out the window. There's no one there. Then, as the patient turns slowly, silently, in her chair and looks up, the shaman's face is superimposed over the doctor's.
The shaman is Maangamizi (the 'Destroyer'), an ancient spirit whose presence becomes more and more real and who's powers begin to draw the other two closer and closer together in a series of supernatural experiences rooted in both of their tragic pasts.
Even the title Destroyer becomes debatable because in this case what is being destroyed via visions, dreams, memories and tribal magic results in healing and liberation.
Just because the film focuses on women doesn't make it a 'feminist' tract. That observation does this movie a disservice. One of the most positive presences here is the doctor's male colleague.
Anyone who longs for films trying to honestly and originally convey something about what it means to be human (combined with a tingling spine) should give MAANGAMIZI a chance. Maangamizi may haunt her subjects, her namesake may well haunt you.