‘Jerusarema’ heads for the big screen

through the dance.
Script writer and director Abel Dzobo says the movie is a celebration of the dance, which was declared the “masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage” by Unesco.
“Dancing with Angels is purely a dance movie. It celebrates the dance in its societal setting, and the guaranteed continuity of the dance as an 11-year-old boy and his 70-year-old grandfather are both enthusiastic about the dance.
“It has a rich cast of not less than three Jerusarema Mbende master practitioners, such that the dance is not distorted,” he said.
Dzobo, who is the director and producer of “The Show Goes On”, the documentary on the late musician Tongai Moyo, said shoot-ing of the movie had already started and would be completed in the first week of November.
In the movie, an 11-year-old boy loses his parents in a car accident and relocates to Murehwa to live with his grandfather.
He is plagued by guilty conscience, as he blames himself for the accident.
At school other students believe he keeps to himself due to a superiority complex, since he is from the city.
So they terrorise the boy to the point that he attempts suicide.
But all this changes when the boy sees other pupils dancing Mbende Jerusarema at school.
He falls in love with the dance and practises it at home. His grandfather teaches him the finer moves and he is an instant hit at school.
He evolves into the school’s leading dancer and is at the forefront of the drive to wrestle the Mbende Jerusarema festival crown from a neighbouring school, which has won it three consecutive times.
“A scene to look out for is the enactment of how Roman Catholic missionaries, who wanted the dance banned as a heathen dance, were duped into linking it with Christianity as the elders christened it ‘Jerusarema’, the biblical Jerusalem,” said Dzobo.
He also applauded the Culture Fund for awarding a US$5 000 grant towards the production of the movie.
Culture Fund director Mr Farai Mupfunya said that they had supported the movie as it was a vehicle for promoting Zimbabwe’s cultural heritage to the world.
“As Zimbabwe we are a signatory of the African Charter and the 2005 Unesco Convention that makes it mandatory for us to protect and promote the diversity of cultural expressions, and impose obligations at both domestic and international levels on parties, preserve and promote cultural diversity.
“Therefore, this movie is worthy of our support since it documents the dance,                  which is preservation and promotion of the dance. 
“As the Culture Fund, we will always support projects that promote our culture,” he said.
National Arts Council of Zimbabwe director Mr Elvas Mari said that it was a project, which was coming at a time when Jerusarema  Mbende will be taken to the whole nation next year.
“We are excited with the movie as next year Jerusarema Mbende will be the official dance for the Jikinya Dance Festival.
“So to have filmmakers recognising Mbende Jerusarema shows that we are on the right track in getting our arts onto the global stage,” he said.
Producer of the movie Donald Chidoori said the movie would be taken right round the country.
“We are going to use mobile cinema such that Mbende Jerusarema is taken right around the country. We are in the process of engaging partners who have expressed willingness to sponsor the mobile cinema,” said Chidoori.