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I’m a little late on this one but still felt this short film was worth sharing.

Black British filmmaker Kibwe Tavares wowed Sundance audiences this year with his beautiful scifi short film JONAH. Filmed in Zanzibar with two black British actors (Daniel Kaluuya and Malachi Kirby), Jonah is a modern re-imagining of the Biblical “Jonah and the Whale” tale.

The special effects in this short are AMAZING. Also, the narrative subtext about excessive tourism to tranquil paradises (and the human pollution that comes as a result) is well told with only visuals, no dialogue. What a great short that proves black filmmakers can think outside of the box every now and then. Here’s the official synopsis:

Mbwana and his best friend Juma are two young men with big dreams. These dreams become reality when they photograph a gigantic fish leaping out of the sea and their small town blossoms into a tourist hot-spot as a result. But for Mbwana, the reality isn’t what he dreamed – and when he meets the fish again, both of them forgotten, ruined and old, he decides only one of them can survive. Jonah is a big fish story about the old and the new, and the links and the distances between them. A visual feast, shot though with humour and warmth, it tells an old story in a completely new way.