By Chisomo Phiri
All is set for the first premiere of the movie titled ’16 Bars:King of Bawo’ on November 17,2023 at Golden Peacock Hotel in Lilongwe.
16 bars:King of Bawo is a local musical (hip-hop) movie which is trying to give a strong message about self confident, sexual harassment as well as child abuse.
The movie also tries to put out a positive image about ladies in the society.
In a separate interview, ibrahim Affia, the movie’s first assistant director and the actor said the movie was produced by Nthano lab and shot by Candlelit productions.
He said the masterpiece has four leading characters namely Desiree Namachotsa, Dalitso Blessed Chimombo, Ibrahim Affia and Mirriam Phiri.
“It also has characters that are well known in the music industry like Driemo, Joe kellz and VJ Ice,” he said.
Asked on where one can find the tickets for the movie premiere, Affia said :” You can find the tickets at Area 18 puma filling station, Mbowe filling station and Maula filling station.”
And responding to how he sees film industry in Malawi, the first assistant director said :”The industry is slowly coming into shape, you can also see that there are so many movies which are made in the country, not just movies but good movies, the ones that you can watch and be contented that you’ve watched an interesting piece.
“What lucks most in this industry is the support from the public. If Malawians support fully then this could be one of the ways that the country could get revenue.”
Affia called on government to give extra support towards Film Association of Malawi for it to grow bigger.
“Government is the mother body to all sectors. As one of the sectors, film association of Malawi needs support from the government in terms of funding and permit of some infrastructures which can help in making movies look good, we need the government to come in in building movie theaters so we do not need to spend so much money paying for venues as the industry is still in it’s baby steps.
He then urged people to come in large numbers to support the movie premiere.
“We brought 16 bars in 2017, people received it warmly, everybody watched it as it was all over the tv stations. We managed to bring an interesting piece of work in 2017 so trust me you will not regret going to the premiere for this one. I would urge malawians to come in large number because this kind of movie has never been made in Malawi so it is one of a kind,” urged Affia.
