Prime Cuts: Who Killed Captain Alex?

SUPA MOVIE 

The main drive behind Prime Cuts is effectively to determine weather or not a film should be included with a Prime subscription. Now I know that Prime original shows like The Boys or Invincible have decent pull but two shows based on graphic novels are a very finite resource, because your going to run out of source material at some point, so having a robust library of collected movies and shows is what keeps a service going. And I mean no exaggeration when I say that this movie is a tent pole for Prime Video and may be one of the purest, most joyful and earnest pieces of cinema ever made.

Who Killed Captain Alex? Is a real oddball in the canon of world-cinema in the fact that it is the product of a truly independent film scene localised entirely within a single neighbourhood of Kampala, Uganda that boasts a single studio that draws upon the people and resources available to them, namely scrap metal, toys and Neighbors. Ramon Film Productions is the brainchild of Isaac Godfrey Geoffrey Nabwana (usually referred to as I.G.G Nabwana), a local man who grew up under the regime of Idi Amin and lived through one of the darkest chapters of Ugandan history watching re-runs of American TV shows and hearing retellings of Hollywood actions films from his brothers. Whilst details about his life are a little scare, we do know he was chased by helicopters during the Ugandan Civil War, which is perhaps why the feature so often in his films. Mark my words, there will be a biopic about this man one day even if I have to make it myself.

All I.G.G films have a few things in common. Firstly, the budgets are microscopic. As in, less than $200 dollars for Who Killed Captain Alex? Second, all the actors are people from the Wakaliga Neighbourhood where the studio is based. And thirdly, buckets of gore and violence. This Film is no exception to any of those rules and I love it with every fibre of my being. The actual Plot is a quite simple but well executed revenge narrative. Captain Alex is tasked with hunting down Richard, the leader of the Tiger Mafia (Uganda's deadliest gang) and manages to capture Richard's brother. Richard seeks revenge by trying to capture Alex who is killed in the attempt. This brings Alex's brother Bruce (a Ugandan Shaolin monk) out to try and find Richard to exact his revenge all while the remainder of Alex's unit try to seek out the Tiger Mafia as well.

Now you may know this movie by its reputation as a comedy and be think “That doesn't sound funny?” And your right it isn't, but VJ Emmie makes it funny. What is a VJ? Well cinemas are a little sparse in Uganda, so people will open up “Video Halls” where movies, TV, Sports etc will be played. Each Video Hall will have a narrator sitting up front by the screen to provide commentary and translate the film. These narrators will sometimes tell jokes and basically turn any showing into an jerry-rigged MST3K episode. Who Killed Captain Alex? Prides itself on having the first English language VJ on a DVD in the form of Emmie. It is unclear if any of the jokes he makes about characters are canonically accurate to the story or not, and sometimes he'll just start screaming the word “Movie!” over and over again in-between lines like “Everybody in Uganda knows Kung-Fu!” or making jabs at Nollywood. He is basically the movies Hype-man and I wouldn't have it any other way because his timing is totally impeccable.

This film has spread organically across the internet through word of mouth and memes. In many ways it mirrors the way The Room became the cultural icon that it is, but it differs from the room in one key way. Where The Room had a bottomless pile of money, Who Killed Captain Alex? Had a bottomless pile of shear, unadulterated enthusiasm. I.G.G made this movie because he wanted to make something to make people happy and because he loves doing it. Every cast member and every crew member gave everything they had to this movie. It has so much soul, so much heart and love poured into that it feels like a group of friends playing with a movie camera in a park or back garden. Whereas sometimes big studio pictures feel like soulless products spat out by a giant system, Wakaliwood feels like something pure. It is art for the sake of art, made by a man who wants nothing more than to make movies and have fun doing it. I walked away from this movie assured in the knowledge that great cinema will come from anywhere where someone can get a camera and some friends together. As VJ Emmie would say: Expect the un-expectable!