Private Project

Farewell Meu Amor

On the morning of the long-awaited reunion with his exiled family, a man is faced with the heartbreak of a different type of parting - from his lover.

  • Ekwa Msangi
    Director
    Soko Sonko, Taharuki
  • Ekwa Msangi
    Writer
    Soko Sonko, Taharuki
  • Huriyyah Muhammad
    Producer
    Soko Sonko
  • Matamba Kombila
    Producer
  • Sahr Ngaujah
    Key Cast
    Fela!
  • Nana Mensah
    Key Cast
    An African City
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    10 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    September 12, 2016
  • Production Budget:
    3,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Tanzania, United Republic of
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Zanzibar International Film Festival
    Zanzibar
    Tanzania, United Republic of
    July 11, 2016
    Work-in-Progress
  • New York African Film Festival
  • CineOdyssey Film Festival
Distribution Information
  • E-pic Film Productions, Inc.
    Country: Worldwide
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Ekwa Msangi

Ekwa has written & directed several shorts, most recently award-winning comedy Soko Sonko (The Market King) and her newly released film Farewell Meu Amor. Her suspense-thriller, Taharuki (Suspense) is distributed by Shorts International, Inc. She has also written & directed several drama series for mainstream broadcasters in Kenya and MNET South Africa. Ekwa was selected for the 2016 Berlin Talent Campus and is a resident instructor with the African Film Festival, Inc, and is a Screenwriting mentor in Mira Nair’s Maisha Film School. Ekwa’s first web-series All My Friends Are Married launched in April to rave reviews, and she is in development on her first feature documentary about Tanzania’s first president, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere.

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Director Statement

This story is a personal one, inspired by a close family member, and takes place on the morning when our protagonist’s world is about to change forever. His long estranged wife and son have finally been granted their American Visa and are arriving in New York after two decades of living in exile, but in order to create space for his legal family, he must say goodbye to the only family he’s had up until that point – Linda.

I want to explore the theme of BLACK LOVE in this film, and specifically how it pertains to African people. Probably for religious reasons, (among many others), the ways in which love, longing and relationship is discussed and portrayed in African film is very limiting. I’m hoping to expand the scope with this film. I’m also interested in looking at the lives of immigrants. In most Western countries, immigrants are portrayed as the “takers,” the ones draining the system of all it’s hard earned resources, depleting the country’s coffers. What we don’t often discuss is how much immigrants have to GIVE UP in order to be immigrants in whatever country they end up in. Who is left behind and at what costs are these sacrifices made.

The immigrant story is one that’s very dear to me, and one that resonates especially while living in a city like Brooklyn where most everyone is an immigrant of sorts with all sorts of complex ties to their home countries and families. The ideas of family, home, country and what that means can change overnight with the stroke of a policy-maker’s pen. This is my humble offering: Black love and living in America.