Africa-Press – Tanzania. TANZANIAN upcoming artist Regina Kihwele alias Gynah, has won the best actress category at the Lake International Pan African Film Festival (LIPAFF) in Nairobi, Kenya over the weekend.
Gynah is a singer-songwriter, actress and fashion designer. She was the only female from Tanzania nominated as best actress, by the LIPAFF.
“Gynah emerged the winner of the best actress category competing with other best actresses from South Africa, Cameroon, Morocco and Uganda,” said her manager Lucy Kihwele.
She played a leading role in a film titles Mulasi, which is the “gogo” word for friend, Rafiki in Swahili. Gogo is the tribe from the Tanzanian capital city Dodoma. Mulasi (my friend) is a film about a woman (Sechelela) who is going through clinical depression and struggles to deal with her family and work.
Her friends act as a shoulder to lean on as they find themselves together embarking on the journey of touring Dodoma city.
The film is directed by an award-winning Director and producer Honeymoon Aljabri. Born and raised in Dodoma, Tanzania. She felt the set would be great to promote local tourism especially the Beautiful Central Tanzania which is yet to be explored. Honeymoon told the story in swahili to promote the language and Tanzanian culture.
In order to connect to the Tanzanian and international audience she chose to speak about mental illness, the one thing people tend to ignore.
Regina Kihwele is the multi-talented actress who played the leading role of Sechelela. Sechelela is a strong character that carries the load of most Tanzanian women in marriages who hide their pain.
The awards are a bridge to promote Tanzanian film industry and tourism through the young actresses who won the award.
Regina as an artist and mental health advocate believes that the film is an easier way to spread mental health awareness to the Tanzanian community. She also sees herself as an inspiration to aspiring actresses and being a part of the movement is a stepping stone to achieving her dream to produce edutainment films from Tanzania.
Tanzania was also among the category of Best actor represented by Cojack Chilo – Nyara the kidnapping (Tanzania) who was competing with Ghana, Uganda, Kenya and South Africa
And the award went to Rushabiro Raymond- Stain (Uganda). Also Best Feature Film Nyara the kidnapping – Tanzania competing with three nominees from Kenya, Uganda and the award went to Mission to rescue from Kenya.
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