TRAVERSE 114
And Now For Something Completely Different KAYAK THE KWANZA
When we hear people speak of having an adventure , our minds tend to go to places we have seen on film and TV . We imagine high adrenaline type moments or picturesque views . What I had the privilege of seeing today , truly defined an adventure . As it is a Friday night , I pour myself a glass of wine , place myself on the couch and hit play on Kayak The Kwanza . With a length of 54 minutes , it ’ s the perfect duration for my attention span after a full week ’ s work .
The opening scene immediately grabs my attention – a very picturesque view of a country in Africa . The words “ Written and directed by Oscar Scifadi ” appear neatly at the top of the screen .
A voice-over begins - “ Hi I ’ m Oscar , in June 2016 I travelled to Angola to meet up with my friend Alfie . Together we completed the sourced amount of navigation on the Kwanza river , a journey of over 1300 kilometres .”
Oscar introduces what ’ s to come in the documentary . A few facts stand out , that had me very much intrigued . They use the following in the same sentence to give you a picture .
1 . “ Chased ” and “ hippos ” ( the word hippos is used so many times , it is worth doing a drinking game around it . A swig of your drink for each time Oscar or Alfie mentions it )
2 . “ Detained ” and “ deportation ”
R E
The documentary is split into 9 parts . Each part depicts the journey of our adventurers and while all are worth talking about I won ' t ruin the flow of the story for you by describing each however , I will say that one of the films highlights is part 8 , where our adventurers get arrested and aren ' t able to film the outcome . What follows is a South Park-esk artist impression of what happened during this time . This is too good for words and complete with impressions of cartoon police officers and immigration officers , this section is a treat , hilarious .
Spoiler alert They make it to the end . For a documentary that only goes for 50 minutes , Kayak the Kwanza is equipped with a good punch of personality . Oscar ’ s style of narration is both quirky and hilarious and
Saj Sinniah
V I
the format of the documentary complements his sense of humour . I laughed at so many peculiar moments that were not kayaking related , that make me wonder what Oscar and Alfie would be like if I hung out with them at our local pub .
I have so many questions I would like to ask them like ; what was travelling like in TAAG airlines ? Where did Oscar buy his Air Jordan ' s that replaced his lost boots ? Was the fried chicken for the last meal any good ? What did the dehydrated food taste like ? Is Oscar still with his girlfriend ?
When the end credits commence , I am filled with happiness and empowerment . A journey has been captured around moments in the life where two people whose strength of passion got them through . While there were struggles of physical damage and run ins with the law , combined with serious uncomfortable conditions , the two adventurers barely complained . They embraced adventure and shared a common goal .
It is a remarkable effort by Oscar to have this documentary available for the world to see . I hope I get to meet him one day .
E WS
Kayak The Kwanza will soon be available as a book , a diarised version of this fantastic film . It will certainly make for an interesting read and help a great organisation in The HALO Trust .
More information of availability of the book and The HALO Trust can be found at - www . KayakTheKwanza . com
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