Set in Uganda, The Pearl of Africa is a docudrama that explores the life of Cleopatra Kambugu, a transgender woman, and her partner Nelson. The film's title is inspired by Winston Churchill’s 1909 memoir, My African Journey, where he lauded Uganda’s natural beauty, calling it “the pearl [of Africa.].”
Uganda, the Pearl of Africa, is known for its diverse landscapes and rich culture.
A Love Story Amidst Homophobia
Cleo always knew she was a transwoman. She and Nelson, a straight man, had known each other in high school and became romantically involved as adults, and are deeply in love. Nelson is quiet and introspective, while Cleo is outgoing and fun-loving.
Their country’s homophobia is shown in just a few brief, violent excerpts of TV news. Some of Cleo’s family, caught up in the hatred, abandoned her, and her father beat her. Fortunately, her mother always stood by her and was her closest ally.
After Cleo was outed along with other activists on the front page of a local newspaper, she was forced to quit her job, and she and Nelson had to go into hiding for over a month. Her mother brought them food.
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Forced into Exile
In 2014, Uganda passed a homophobic law, and later that year, a Ugandan tabloid outed Kambugu, which eventually forced the lovers to flee Uganda. In the film, Cleopatra Kambugu and her husband, Nelson leave Uganda for Thailand to pursue Cleopatra's surgery. She wants to live a quiet life with her husband and have that relationship validated. She wants to make things better for the trans people who come after her. For all that, she becomes an exile.
After coming out of hiding, the couple flew to Thailand so that Cleo could undergo gender reassignment surgery; in her case, both genital surgery and breast implants were carried out at the same time. Deeply intimate scenes show her and Nelson in the moments before and after her surgery. In a tribute to modern technology, the talents of her Thai surgical team, and her own fortitude, she was up and about only days after surgery.
Secondary to this narrative is the story of her relationship with Nelson, which is not something you can find in other similar films. Nelson is obviously in love with Cleopatra, and the act of partnering with her is as radical an act as Cleopatra's own resistance to the unfairness heaped upon her. We almost never see transgender people partnered in film, let alone happily partnered.
When Cleo and Nelson returned to Africa, they settled in Nairobi. “Geographically, Kenya might be close to Uganda, but people here think differently when it comes to gender and sexuality.”
Cleo and Nelson's love story is a central theme of the documentary.
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Director's Approach and Film Techniques
Director Jonny von Wallström constructs the film using the techniques of fiction filmmaking. As a formal object, this is a kind of documentary I like: one that trusts its B-roll and forgoes the usual crutches of talking heads or expository text cards. This is non-fiction that plays like a movie rather than as journalism, which is all to the good. Von Wallström composes the frame throughout for aesthetic impact. It's endlessly watchable. Von Wallström is creative with his editing choices, too.
Thematic Strengths and Weaknesses
This film is at its best when it focuses on the small things that define loving relationships. The way Nelson holds Cleopatra's hand in the recovery room, for instance. Or way they both interact with each other in the manner of an old married couple. These humanize them both in ways the surgical stuff doesn't.
I don't mean to downplay or cast shade on Cleopatra's choices and journey--bully for her for getting it done against the odds, I say--but I'm more interested in watching Nelson puzzle over how to buy a train ticket in Thailand or the two of them taking pictures of themselves at the magic hour. These scenes find profound beauty in the humanity of their subjects, and if a film like this has any purpose at all, finding humanity in what it observes is surely it. The sight of Cleopatra's face, lifted to the rising sun, is an indelible portrait of just such a humanity.
Impact and Message
Pearl of Africa leaves you with not just a love story or a journey through hardship, but with a social message. For the Ugandan community, the message speaks about those less-represented, and for the rest of the world, it is a story about Africa that does not revolve around poverty or AIDS.
The director intentionally alternates between the news footage of angry protestors protesting against homosexuality and the serene relationship between Cleo and Nelson. On the one hand you have people protesting a sexual orientation they think is not normal. Then on the other hand you have Cleo and Nelson, a happy couple in love. The Pearl of Africa shows you just how hard it is for some people to be themselves.
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