New film highlights Albino plight

Last week there were many films that were screened at the Zanzibar International Film Festival and so much happened but there is one film that has attracted attention.

Though there is some effort being done to stop stigma against people albinism, it is a problem that is yet to go away and still needs to be worked on.

The film ‘Inner Struggle’ was one of those that brought viewers to tears as it takes a look at an orphan girl with albinism who has been found abandoned on the streets, is adopted by a successful businessman and his wife.

The film is heartbreaking drama based on many true stories from real life situations in Tanzania.

At the screening it left many viewers with welling eyes as they sympathised with the young girl who the traditional healer was advising her father to scarifice for the sake of his business’ survival.

The businessman is faced with a difficult decision to make when his business starts to go bad, he gets an advice that will put him in an extremely difficult situation.

He is torn between choosing whether to listen to the witch doctor’s advice or will he listen to his heart. At the same time the young girl faces many difficulties in school, where schoolmates and teachers who do not seem to understand a thing about her.

The advice is dismissed at first but a man who has everything to lose sometimes have to resort to extraordinary measures.

A visit to a witch doctor makes him not only a lot poorer, but also doesn’t get the result that he returned home with the belief that his own daughter is the cause of all their problems.

The actors in the film are all amateurs without any previous experience of acting who go a long way to give a credible impression. The film helps to teach easily in an understandable way, what albinism means.

“Our hands do not go right through people like Alice as if they were ghosts. She is a human being like all of us, capable of love and kindness, and her body, or severed limbs, provides by no means to luck or magical powers to others,” says Eva the film producer.

According to her it’s an interesting idea to educate through films and if ‘The Inner Struggle’, makes a high-impact, is it perhaps a medium that can be used in the future.

“The film is highly topical as we hear of human sacrifices intensified at election time, and that people with albinism still are at significantly greater risk than others.”

Though there is a happy ending as the man decides again the plight of Albino children remains as a reality in Tanzania that is still to be dealt with .