{"id":24263,"date":"2016-03-31T01:40:48","date_gmt":"2016-03-31T01:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/kenya-nairobi-reality-distorted-in-fiction-film\/"},"modified":"2016-03-31T01:39:59","modified_gmt":"2016-03-31T01:39:59","slug":"kenya-nairobi-reality-distorted-in-fiction-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/kenya-nairobi-reality-distorted-in-fiction-film\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenya:Nairobi reality distorted in fiction film about drone attack on Shabaab"},"content":{"rendered":"

{A fiction film supposedly set in Nairobi’s Eastleigh neighbourhood opened in wide release in the US this week to glowing reviews and sizeable box-office receipts.
\n}<\/p>\n

\u201cEye in the Sky\u201d dramatises the circumstances leading up to a drone attack on an Al-Shabaab safe house where militants are preparing for suicide bombings of civilian targets.<\/p>\n

The thriller derives its power from a seemingly realistic portrayal of an agonising decision-making process involving military officers and politicians in the UK and US.<\/p>\n

Unbeknownst to the Shabaab plotters, their compound’s interior and exterior are being viewed in real time on video screens thousands of miles away.<\/p>\n

Tension mounts as the British and American controllers of the Hellfire missiles poised high above Eastleigh debate whether to launch a strike that could result in civilian casualties.<\/p>\n

Concern centres on the presence of an innocent young girl selling bread from a table adjacent to the target zone.<\/p>\n

An aura of authenticity is established in the first few minutes of the movie through actual footage of a Shabaab shooter inside the Westgate shopping mall and a newscaster’s mention of the slaughter at Garissa University College.<\/p>\n

The street scenes, shown at ground level and from spy cameras disguised as a bird and winged insect, will also appear realistic to audiences unfamiliar with \u201cLittle Mogadishu.\u201d<\/p>\n

The depiction is distorted, however.<\/p>\n

CRUEL AUTHORITY<\/p>\n

Heavily armed Shabaab fighters in uniforms are shown patrolling Eastleigh on foot and in battle wagons.<\/p>\n

They openly exert cruel authority over the residents of a section of Kenya’s capital city. The militants’ control goes unchallenged by Kenyan police and soldiers.<\/p>\n

The action supposedly taking place in Eastleigh was actually filmed not in Nairobi but on sets in Cape Town. Director Gavin Hood, a South Africa native, explained to media outlet News24.com that he chose to make the movie in the South African city because \u201cCape Town is a world-class location.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the crews are world class,\u201d he added. \u201cThey shot constantly on international and local films. It\u2019s been a joy to come home and work on a film that I feel passionate about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEye in the Sky\u201d succeeds in provoking viewers by posing moral quandaries that cannot be simply resolved.<\/p>\n

As the film convincingly suggests, counter-terrorism operations do not necessarily present clear choices between good and evil.<\/p>\n

A British colonel played by Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren is keen to launch a strike that will likely kill a few top Shabaab figures, including a female UK citizen modelled on \u201cwhite widow\u201d Samantha Lewthwaite.<\/p>\n

Ms Mirren’s character argues that the potential death of the nine-year-old bread seller is outweighed by the need to avert attacks that could take scores of Kenyans’ lives.<\/p>\n

\u2018COLLATERAL DAMAGE\u2019
\nHer political overseers are reluctant to launch the missiles, however, due in part to fear that the \u201ccollateral damage\u201d to civilians may become publicly known through leaked video.<\/p>\n

The testy deliberations in a London conference room are interspersed with tense manoeuvrings on the ground in Eastleigh.<\/p>\n

A Kenyan spy played by Somali-American actor Barkhad Abdi (an Oscar nominee for his role in \u201cCaptain Phillips\u201d) has infiltrated the Shabaab stronghold to guide the flight of a tiny drone and, in an improvised assignment, buy up the girl’s bread so she will be removed from harm’s way.<\/p>\n

The New York Times called \u201cEye in the Sky\u201d a \u201criveting thriller. The Los Angeles Times said the screenplay by Guy Hibbert is \u201cthoughtful, piercing and laced with dark-coming absurdities.\u201d The film is \u201ca taut nail-biter\u201d and \u201csuperbly acted,\u201d the LA newspaper added.<\/p>\n

The movie registered nearly $1 million in ticket sales during its first weekend of screenings in the US.<\/p>\n

That sum signified \u201ca robust launch,\u201d according to a movie-industry publication.<\/p>\n

\u201cEye in the Sky\u201d currently ranks as the eleventh-most popular film currently in US cinemas.<\/p>\n

Plans for release in Kenya of \u201cEye in the Sky\u201d have not been finalised.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{A fiction film supposedly set in Nairobi’s Eastleigh neighbourhood opened in wide release in the US this week to glowing reviews and sizeable box-office receipts. } \u201cEye in the Sky\u201d dramatises the circumstances leading up to a drone attack on an Al-Shabaab safe house where militants are preparing for suicide bombings of civilian targets. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[2461],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-24263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-daily-nation"],"bylines":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24263"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=24263"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=24263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}