Mail & Guardian Netflix’s global success with Sue Nyathi’s ‘The Polygamist’ has reignited calls to adapt Zimbabwe’s celebrated novels for film and television. But filmmakers say turning literary gems into screen hits requires far more than great stories After Sue Nyathi’s The Polygamist became a Netflix global sensation, reaching number two on Netflix’s global non-English chart and charting in the top 10 in 63 countries, Zimbabweans took to social media to call for the adaptation of some of the country’s classic novels into screen renditions. Whether for television or the big screen, the line wasn’t exactly drawn but the message was clear: lobby an industry that is sitting on gems worthy of a repeat of The Polygamist.
But industry players are more cautious about the excitement of the transition from page to screen, citing the complex nature of the business that has historically disadvantaged African filmmakers. It has never been a walk in the park bringing an idea be it original or an adaptation to the screen, with African filmmakers citing the financial and technical hurdles involved where skilled or professional screenwriters, producers, directors and other crew personnel are few and far between. Adapting the works of novelists further complicates the process, some experienced industry players contend.”Zimbabwe has no shortage of strong fiction storytellers and stories.
Think of Yvonne Vera, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Chenjerai Hove and Ndabaningi Sithole who wrote some Ndebele fiction before moving to English,” Ben Mahaka, one of Zimbabwe’s leading filmmakers, said. “That transition from page to screen needs to be oiled with patient money. We don’t have the infrastructure that underpins the move from books to the screen.
“That infrastructure requires healthy, well-funded local production companies. You don’t just take a writer’s intellectual property; you have to option it,” Mahaka told the Mail & Guardian. Zimbabwe has a rich literary history and some advocates of adapting local novels have pointed to iSiNdebele novelists, among them Ndabezinhle Sigogo, Geshom Khiyaza and Barbara Makhalisa, whose work emerged before the country’s independence.
Their work resonates with readers today, judging by online sentiments after The Polygamist’s success, yet the process of translating literary works would require filmmakers, producers and agents to be familiar with the n…
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