SUBIRA is a free spirit, a young Muslim girl born to be in the water. She loves to swim and go fishing with her father – much to her mother’s dismay. In her element in the ocean, SUBIRA dreams of swimming competitively, as the boys do. But when her father dies in a boating accident, suddenly she’s not allowed to swim at all anymore. Subira now finds herself firmly in the clutches of her traditional mother, Mwana, whose single-minded aim is to arrange a good marriage for her daughter. Though matched with the sensitive, progressive-minded Toufiq, marriage does not quell Subira’s longing to swim and her problems are just beginning. Director Sippy Chadha has expanded her award-winning short film of the same name to make an engaging feature-length drama about a young woman’s fight to follow her dreams.
Direction: Sippy Chadha
Script: Sippy Chadha
Cast: Brenda Wairimu, Tirath Padam, Nice Githinji, Melvin Alusa
Original Title: Subira
Original Languages: English, Swahili
Subtitles: English
Film Production Countries: Denmark, Kenya