EXCLUSIVE: The threat of armed conflict hangs over the award-winning documentary The Battle for Laikipia, as two communities compete for dwindling resources on a Kenyan plateau.
On the one side are indigenous pastoralists, who guide herds of cattle, sheep and goats to graze across wide expanses. On the other side are white ranchers, descendants of British colonial settlers, who keep livestock of their own behind fences on private land. Historically these groups were able to coexist reasonably well, but as climate change shrivels grasslands and drought threatens animals, ranchers and pastoralists find themselves on a collision course.
The film, directed by Daphne Matziaraki and Peter Murimi and executive produced by Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams, will be released in theaters in the U.K. in October. MetFilm Sales is handling worldwide sales. Watch the first trailer for the film above.
“Since 2017, we have intimately filmed our characters as they confront a rapidly changing world,” notes a synopsis of the documentary. “Our story goes beyond the headline grabbing conflict. Exploring identity, the complicated legacy of British colonialism, and the intersection with climate change, all while happening during the most fragile moment of our planet.”
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In one scene, a white man threatens to kill a young herder and his flock if he doesn’t get off private property. Elsewhere in the film, huge numbers of cattle are shot to death, presumably at the direction of the government, which appears to favor the ranchers’ rights over the herders’ plight.
Some indigenous herders view the white farmers as “foreigners” (in the trailer, one man invites the British government to take back its people). But as the film explains, many of the white families have lived there for generations and know no other home.
Director Peter Murimi in London on October 8, 2020.
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The filmmakers approached the subject from different backgrounds: Matziaraki was born in Greece and studied at the University of California – Berkeley (her 2016 short documentary 4.1 Miles earned an Academy Award nomination); Murimi grew up in Kenya, directing the 2020 documentary I Am Samuel that also was set in Kenya.
Director Daphne Matziaraki attends the Annual Academy Awards on February 26, 2017.
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
“In The Battle for Laikipia, our characters fight to preserve what Laikipia means to them and, through this, their own identities,” Matziaraki and Peter Murimi said in a directors’ statement. “Both communities love Laikipia dearly. As the pressures on the fragile landscape increased, we saw them become polarized, fearful, protective, and violent. We also saw them question who they are and whether change is needed to overcome their past differences. As filmmakers, we were confronted with our own difficult questions about identity, history, and unconscious biases.”
The filmmakers added, “While viewers might initially think that the problems of this remote Kenyan landscape are far from their daily realities, Laikipia is a microcosm of universal, often taboo, issues that we all face: identity, inequality, the legacy of colonialism, and the climate crisis. The Battle for Laikipia reflects the global battle for the future of the Earth – an issue that affects every community on the planet.”
The Battle for Laikipia premiered in January at the Sundance Film Festival where producer Toni Kamau won the Amazon Studios Nonfiction Producers Award. The film earned the Land Sky Sea Award at HotDocs in April, and also screened at CPH:DOX in Copenhagen and the Sydney Film Festival in Australia.
The Battle for Lakipia is a production of One Story Up and We Are Not the Machine, directed by Daphne Matziaraki and Peter Murimi. The film is produced by Toni Kamau and Matziaraki; executive producers include Roger Ross Williams, Geoff Martz, Jody Allen, Jason Hunke, Shari Sant, Shannon Joy, and Tiffany Schauer. Sam Soko edited the film. Cinematography is by Daphne Matziaraki, Peter Murimi, and Maya Craig. William Ryan Fritch composed the score.
Watch the trailer for The Battle for Laikipia above.