SHAFII ABDUL THE ACTOR FROM TANZANIA

As we await the release of Bongoland II, we thought it is only appropriate to tell you about some of the special actors from Tanzania who were part of this amazing production. Meet Shafii Abdul a resident of Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania. Shafii is in our opinion one of the best up and coming actors from Tanzania.

When you meet Shafii, he does not speak much. He observes and listens most of the time. When he wants to say something, he would ask very politely and then express his opinion. He did have opinions which we admired and respected because they enhanced the quality of the movie. It also showed us what type of a person he is off the camera. For example, we wanted him to hold a beer bottle – like drink during the scene – From which he said, he did not prefer to do for religious reasons. Then very quickly he said, but I will do my best to improve and enhance the scene. Then we said cool. We were not disappointed. The director of the movie was very impressed with this demeanor. It was different in an environment where he was constantly bombarded with opinions, questions and suggestions from different directions. Which comes with directorial territory.
We run into Shafii by accident. We were having trouble to fill this role. We had looked at few people which we did not like. But then late in the day someone told us that, there is one more guy who has been trying to get a screening test. We decided to see him. Of course he did very well, much better than the ones we had previously screened.

The rest was history. He got one of the main acting parts where he plays an aspiring politician who is also Juma’s younger brother. What made him perfect for the role is his intensity and his ability to change character mood from being very serious to very happy seamlessly.

Then he did something special for us. In one of the serious scenes, we required the actors to be very emotional. We completed the first take, which was not very good, then he pulled me over and asked if he could cry. We said..PLEASE! Then as we started the second take, you could see him shed tears… for real. His reaction carried the whole scene and the set was stunned. By the way he did this several times

This is rare, in fact there are some of the experienced crew with us from America with years of experience in the business who commented that they have not seen this before. Most actors produce induced tears with eye drops etc. His were real tears.

Of course acting is not just making tears and we think that once you see him in the soon to be released movie you will agree with us. We are very proud of him and very proud that we (from Tanzania) have someone who we can showcase on the international stage and proudly say “He is one of us”

SO PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD….TELL THE WORLD!!!

Good job Shafii!!