Rachel Cooke 

Call Me Kuchu – review

This documentary about a Ugandan gay-rights activist tears at the heart, writes Rachel Cooke
  
  

Call Me Kuchu
'Such horror, such bravery': Call Me Kuchu tears at the heart. Photograph: PR

This is a documentary about the veteran Ugandan gay-rights activist David Kato (in Uganda, gay men and women are known as "kuchus"). One year into filming Kato's struggle to fight the efforts of Ugandan politicians to introduce some of the most repressive anti-homosexual legislation the world has ever seen, the unthinkable happened: he was brutally murdered. The film includes footage of his funeral, at which the village pastor tells his grieving friends that their own sexual sins make them culpable for Kato's death. Call Me Kuchu isn't terribly artful; it would work better on television than the big screen. But it tears at that heart all the same. Such horror, such bravery.

 

Leave a Comment

Required fields are marked *

*

*