Leaving Isiolo

Good morning!

“Leaving Isiolo” is a neo-western crime drama, and a story of illicit love between a woman, Ciiku (Auudi Rowa), and a man, Lee (Troy Zhang), from vastly different worlds, who find each other in the harsh, remote terrain of northern Kenya. When the pair try to escape to build their new life together, she from her job balancing the books for the regional crime lord, and he from an abusive boss at a Chinese mining company, Isiolo becomes a perilous place for them both. How far will they go to be together?
 
I grew up in the cosmopolitan African city of Nairobi, Kenya, went to University in the United States, and now split my time between the two. As a result, whether as an actor on stage, film, and television or now as a first-time filmmaker, I am drawn to stories that explore the relationship of the African continent to the modern world. I'm fascinated by the migration of different human populations, and the dynamics of interaction within a collective space amongst disparate people.
    
Auudi Rowa is a university student and rising star, who I found during open-call auditions. To find the actor who portrays Lee, I combed the Nairobi-Chinese community. I fell in love with a non-actor Troy Zhang after he introduced me to his nine-month-old daughter, Mara, born in Nairobi and named after the world-famous Maasai Mara National Park. Casting Troy as Lee was serendipitous: a sensitive caring person who knew what it meant to start from scratch as a newly arrived immigrant to Africa. He’s very well known in the Chinese community and helped bring along two colleagues, also non-actors, who appear as fellow mine-workers.
 
In making the film, I was lucky to have the help of producers Loui Terrier and Wanzilu Maingi; the great eye of Director of Photography Joan Poggio; and the magic hand of executive producer Wangechi Mutu, my sister, muse, and world-renowned contemporary visual artist. The crew came from the thriving Kenyan film community.
 
I also want to thank the 2013 Sundance Directors Lab, where creative advisor Alfre Woodard taught me that “the film you wrote, isn’t the film you’ll shoot, and it won’t be the film you’ll edit.” It was a lesson to allow what I wrote to organically take its own shape through each phase.
 
“Leaving Isiolo” stands alone as a short film, but it's also a study for a feature-length screenplay, now in development. Enjoy my directorial debut!

Gratefully,

~ Irungu Mutu & the Leaving Isiolo Team.