Tanzania’s first Netflix film aims to “give women a voice”

Tanzanian filmmakers behind the country’s first Netflix film have spoken out about what it means for women.
Binti, which premiered on Netflix on January 7, is a story about the lives and struggles of four women living in Dar es Salaam who face extreme adversity.

According to its producers, Binti is about the painful circumstances that some women find themselves in in their pursuit of a perfect life – and why the life that they yearn for may not be as rosy as it appears to the public eye.

One of the film’s actresses, Godliver Gordian, stated that the film “helps expose the pain that women in families silently endure.”

Binti has given those who cannot speak a voice. “Somethings happen in families or couples, but one of the partners does not seek help or talk about what they are going through,” she explained.

“We’re making a local film in Tanzania, but someone in Kazakhstan is watching it and saying, ‘this has touched me as a woman,'” says the film’s director, Seko Shamte.

“I receive messages from the United Kingdom, Kenya, South Africa, and the rest of the world, so I know this is a film that has touched all women and some men,” she adds.

Last year, the film premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival, and it has since been screened in Kenya, the United States, and Germany before Netflix.