FILM REVIEW: I Am Samuel

Samuel has found the love of his life in Alex. They smile, joke, walk hand in hand ,  and enjoy their Queer existence. Trouble is this is Kenya where being gay is against the law and,  as this stunning film shows , a savage beating or worse is round any  corner.

Director Peter Murimi follows  the couple through their first year of life together in Nairobi, and Samuel’s trips back to his small isolated Western Kenyan village, where his hard-working parents scrape a living farming the unyielding land.

Samuel’s mother is open and loving; his father, a local lay preacher is reserved, a stern patriarch who believes his word is law, as is the word of God.

We’re told that his parents couldn’t afford to send Samuel to school and so he finds himself independent and in Nairobi holding down two jobs – one on a construction site and the other as a netball trainer .

Not daring to be out in his village, Samuel tells us that he found freedom in the big city with its internet connections to other gay men.  Of Alex he says: ‘ we saw something in each other “.

Penal Code 162 in Kenya says that ‘ carnal knowledge is against the law of nature’  – penalty 14 years in prion. Samuel is drawn back to his roots and the inevitable comments from his father of “  if he gets a wife, it would be good”. Samuel’ s reply to us is : “ I just want my father to understand me “. The situation is further complicated as Samuel, persuaded to have  a girlfriend , has a daughter living  in his native village.

And there’s a strong undercurrent of extreme Christianity that pervades village life. There’ s a breath-stopping scene when Samuel’s  father prays for his son’s safe return to Nairobi, shouting and violently denouncing the devil who may threaten his son – it’s as if this is a shout against Queerness, and his father has already realised a truth about his son which  is later revealed with dire results.

But this is not predominantly a doom-laden film. Alex and Sam are genuinely happy, swearing their undying love n a tender and funny ceremony to exchange rings in a gay party with their Queer friends.

But fear and ignorance are always in the corner – one of their gay fiends Sippy is savagely beaten and Alex tells us that his father, discovering Alex’s sexuality, has probably paid men to “ teach me a lesson “.

In the end, back in Sam’s village, there is some sort of parental reconciliation and Alex is accepted into the community.

It’s a world of prejudice and fear that we gays in the West can scarcely comprehend but for millions of Queer people, it’s a daily reality. For that reason, and its sensitive presentation, this film is well worth a visit.

I Am Samuel is available for the next 10 days on Barbican Cinema On demand and the BFI player as part of both BFI Flare and the Human Rights Watch Film Festivals.