Watu Wote: All of Us

A timely message about the very intense feelings which sometimes lead to ill-will and violence between African Christians and Muslims, and how one group on a bus ride chose to deal with such tensions, even in a life and death situation.

The 2018 Oscars is unusual in that so many of the short films nominated for Best Live Action Short are amazingly good. They are so good that I really wish several could win the award....they are that well made and effective. To give you an idea how good they all are, "Watu Wote: All of Us" was my third favorite...and it would clearly win if it had been nominated any other year!

"Watu Wote" is based on a real story...and it's a story all of us need to know and learn from it. The story is set in Kenya, a country which has had more than its share of radical Islamists. In fact, portions of the country are riddled with these rebel groups to this day.

The story begins with a young Christian woman taking a bus ride across the country to see her ailing mother. Most of the passengers are Muslim and you can tell the lady is uncomfortable about this. Later, you learn that woman's husband and child were murdered by terrorists and you can understand much of her feelings. But what this bus full of mostly Muslims ends up doing does a lot to change her perceptions and, hopefully, those of many in the audience. What does happen? See the film.

The story gets very high marks for its realism and creating a very taut atmosphere. Well made in every way and very worthy of the Oscar.

Everyone should watch this. Amazing short film. Emotional. Scary!. Just superb.

All of Us is the kind of story that builds up to something once it gets into its big final stretch. Though it's only 20 minutes long (a bit long for a short film, but still in the range of what is one), it aims for the scope and harrowing drama of a feature film, and it's remarkable if nothing else that it was produced by a graduate film program from Hamburg, Germany, of all places, and that they were able to put together their resources for a story of humanity's strife in the face of religious persecution. It may also have some extra resonance too since there it takes place - right on the border of Kenya - is one of those areas where a certain someone I won't mention called a "S***hole" not too long ago (though by this writing it feels like ages considering the news cycle, but I digress). What do people on either side stand for? Well.... peace, for one thing?

I think what seems to be a flaw against the film, that the woman we think is the main character here, Adelyne Wairimu's Jua, is kind of put to the side narratively once it gets to its climax of these gun-wielding oh-so-"tough" Al-Shabaab terrorists pulling over a bus full of Christians and Muslims and asking one side to out the other, is actually what makes it compelling. We're following her, as a Christian woman, who really doesn't want to talk or even have a word of dialog with another Muslim person (this goes for the guy on the bus hawking his water and food and other things to buy), and at first her story seems pretty simplistic. But cut to this bus take-over, and the stakes shoot up a thousand percent.

This is based on a true story and I don't doubt it based on how the filmmakers present it; the weakest part is some of the dialog, which sounds more forced or like how we might picture someone writing it who wasn't there. That may be exactly what was spoken - I'm mostly referring to the climax of this - but I don't know if I fully buy it. Nevertheless, this is compelling work for what it's attempting to show us, and the message amid such a brutal environment is a good and pure one: we need to understand one another and actually *listen* to what our religious texts tell us, because otherwise we'll just kill each other till there's no one left. It may end slightly abruptly too, but it's worth waiting to get to the emotional punch of that climax.

Dramatic and touching. The courage shown by a group of Muslims to shield a young Christian woman while they're all at point blank range is inspiring. The film does a great job of transporting us to Kenya too, and the performances throughout the cast are quite good. The film is a little preachy but the message is a good one. The Muslim terrorists commit violence believing they are justified because Islam is under attack; the young Christian woman hates all Muslims because her husband and son have both been killed by them in the past. Neither see the danger of how this blanket condemnation of a group based on the actions of a few perpetuates a cycle of violence, and how it runs counter to what ought to be the true goal of their faiths, spiritual enlightenment. A little simplistic overall, but the events are true, and it's a window into a first step.