I Shot Bi Kidude, a movie on the life of Zanzibar taarab music icon Bi Kidude, opened in UK cinemas on March 21 and will be released in Zanzibar this Sunday, April 17, continuing its worldwide tour. The screening in Zanzibar will be accompanied by select live music performances from Mim Suleiman singing some of Bi Kidude’s most famous songs.

The film, shot and directed by UK filmmaker Andy Jones, is a moving tale of the legendary singer’s last 10 years before her death in 2013.

Shot mainly in Zanzibar’s Stone Town and in the UK, the movie opens with the death of the director’s mother just three weeks before Bi Kidude’s demise on April 17, 2013.

It then develops to show Bi Kidude’s musical journey, her formidable strength and influence on the taarab music scene, the highlights of her career and the director’s connection with Zanzibar and Bi Kidude.

Jones is an ardent fan and was a close friend of Bi Kidude’s, having toured with her, witnessing and recording her high and low moments. This is the second film he has made on Bi Kidude first, As Old as My Tongue (2007) introduced her to international audiences as the oldest singer in the world. The film was described as “A delight from beginning to the end” by the Independent newspaper of London.

Jones’s new film dwells on the lows in Bi Kidude’s life. It shows how things started going wrong after she fell ill in 2012 and was allegedly kidnapped by a distant relative only known as Baraka, who kept her away from her home, friends and Sauti za Busara officials (the organisation is the sole custodian of Bi Kidude’s royalties).

Controversy ensues between Baraka and Sauti za Busara, with the former accusing the latter of abandoning her at her time of need and exploiting her talent.

Jones finally finds where Bi Kidude is being “kept” and shows a sad, dejected and ailing Bi Kidude “hidden” by Baraka away from her home and the life she knew and loved, away from her friends and alleged “exploiters.”

My favourite scene in this film is the part where one of Bi Kidude’s old friends and Jones pay her a visit with the aim of cheering her up and persuading her to let them take her to see a doctor. As the two women chat in Swahili, you can tell that Bi Kidude is suspicious of her friend.

She tells her friend that she has heard that she is one of those who stole from her. The friend defends herself and the three head to the hospital. On the way, Bi Kidude’s friend lovingly squeezes her hand, to which a defensive Bi Kidude reacts strongly against and humorously squeezes her hand back so hard that the friend squirms in her car seat.

It is not certain from the film whether Jones believes Kidude was being exploited. He leaves the audience to judge for itself as he depicts the story moving from one arguing party to the next. He attempts to reach a common ground between Sauti za Busara and the singer, managing to get Bi Kidude back on stage one more time to do what she loves most; singing.

In an emotional scene, Bi Kidude goes on stage at the Sauti ya Busara festival 2013 edition, accompanied by Baraka and Jones. The organisers tell her to just sit on stage as an invited guest, but being the rebel that she is, Bi Kidude will not hear of it. She cannot resist the lure of the microphone.

She gets her way and takes the microphone and she sings, albeit weakly, a far cry from the Bi Kidude the audience knows. She has a hard time handing back the microphone, almost as if crying out for attention, as if silently pleading “I am here, I am still strong, I am alive, I can still sing.”

The film is a well-crafted tribute to a truly remarkable woman. An important lesson that comes out albeit very subtly, is that the old need care, love and support. That they too have dreams and deserve to do what they love. No one is too old for happiness.