Wale Ojo, Tracy Kababiito & Isabelle Kabano set to star in Ema Edosio-Deelen’s ‘Bisesero: A Daughter’s Story’

Nigerian director Ema Edosio-Deelen has announced that she will direct an upcoming pan-African Rwanda genocide drama titled “Bisesero: A Daughter’s Story.”

According to the Deadline, “The production is being billed as the first major feature about the tragic events in Rwanda in 1994 to be told exclusively about and by Africans. Between 500,000 and 800,000 people belonging to the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed Hutu militias over the course of 100 days between April 7 and July 15, 1994. Bisesero: A Daughter’s Story will recount the little-known true story of the Bisesero Resistance, in which tens of thousands of Tutsi, led by an elder called Aminadabu Birara (played by Ojo), bravely fought off Hutu attackers. Kababiito will play Birara’s daughter, Epiphanie, who joins her father in the fight against the better-armed forces trying to exterminate them. Around 50,000 Tutsis sought refuge on Muyira Hill in the region of Bisesero, where Birara assumed command of the community. With incredible courage and ingenuity, they held off heavily armed attackers using only sticks and stones.”

Ema Edosio-Deelen is co-writing the script with award-winning Rwandan director and screenwriter Joël Karekezi.

The movie will star Ugandan actress Tracy Kababiito, British-Nigerian actor Wale Ojo, and Rwandan actress Isabelle Kabano. Wale Ojo, speaking about taking the role, said, “It is an honour to be able to play this role. Just like the genocide against the Tutsi in 1994, my own country, Nigeria, faced a genocide between 1967 and 1970 that killed over 1,000,000 people. And to my sadness, to this day, there is no definitive and successful film about the Nigerian genocide. It is important for Africans to tell our stories.”