Nawi: Dear Future Me is getting the chance to shine at Beijing’s 15th International Film Festival. The feature, directed by brother duo Toby and Kevin Schmutzler along with Apuu Mourine and Vallentine Chelluget, based on a script by Milcah Cherotich, was Kenya’s nominee for the 2025 Oscar’s Best International Feature Film category. The film centers around a young girl named Nawi, who is “battling child marriage in hopes of an education and self-determination.” The phrase “sixty sheep, eight camels, and a hundred goats” might not seem more than a list of animals to first-time viewers as Nawi says it. But that arrangement of livestock is the price a stranger is willing to pay to marry Nawi.
Nawi will screen through the main competition part of the fest, which will end on April 26th. Chinese actor-director Jiang Wen will advise as the head of the jury responsible for handing out the festival’s Tiantan Award. Other members of the jury include The Last Emperor’s Joan Chen and director of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them David Yates.
The sibling duo recently sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to talk about their experience making the film and what they are hoping this impactful film will do for society as a whole. This making of the feature came about in 2017, when the Schmutzler brothers were approached by an NGO located in Kenya to make a, most likely short, film. After trying to find writers in Germany with no luck, the NGO decided to “host a writing competition in the East African Union about the vague topic of ‘the future of Africa.’ And we received many submissions and short stories.” One of those works stood out amidst the rest, a short story by Cherotich.
The story of Nawi was based on Cherotich’s real-life story of her and her sister. While some of it was not entirely accurate, “the main framework of the story is based on her family,” which made the brothers decide that they could do a feature film out of the story if they got Cherotich in the writers room with them. With that, the duo, Cherotich, and film students brought together by the NGO worked on the script. Toby said that the collaboration worked, with him and his brother focused on “bringing in more of the framework and the viewing habits and expectations of the Western audience,” and the students, along with Cherotich, brought “their vision, their creative input, and the real-life, cultural facts.”
Valletine and Apuu joined the project shortly after, with the former having experience working on a short film while the latter studied music and fabric from the NGO. The women helped make sure that the culture was appropriately portrayed. With the brothers saying they knew ”to what measure women would speak up to a man and when they would retreat. Those were the kind of nuances that they could explain. Without them, we would do things wrong and screw it up culturally.”
Kevin expressed the diverse selection of viewers this film would reach was the main challenge behind making the film. He stated, “Knowing that this movie in the end would have two audiences—the Kenyan audience and the Western audience that you need for the global scale to promote education about the topic of child marriage.” As their goal for this film was to get “this topic into European and American societies, get it discussed, and in the next step get to policymakers and raise money,”
Nawi: Dear Future Me had the second largest cinema running a local feature in Kenya. Cherotich even “took the film on a USB stick and organized screenings in remote communities in the country, inviting men at markets to the movie without detailing its content.” Even though Cherotich thought most men would leave after realizing the subject at hand, they stayed throughout the entire film. “Some of them even invited Milcah to their house afterwards, which is one of the biggest gestures of honor.”
After their screenings, just before the credits roll, they roll a link that leads audiences to the Nawi Initiative if they feel inclined to help. The Nawi Initiative is an organization created by the NGO “to fund education and school projects and emergency rescue projects for girls in danger.” The hope is that people will go to the website to learn more “about the topic and engage.”
Nawi: Dear Future Me was released in August 2024, with Michelle Lemuya Ikeny starring as the title character.
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