Title: Mbira Talks
Year: 2025
Country: Zimbabwe, Canada
Language: English and Shona with English Subtitles
Director: Adrienne Amato
Full Cast and Crew: Moyo Rainos Mutamba, Adrienne Amato (producer) | Ryan Noth (producer, Editor), Tess Girard (Cinematographor)
Mbira Talks follows the story of Moyo Rainos Mutamba’s migration from rural Zimbabwe to Toronto, Canada. Suspended between two worlds, he reconnects with his Indigeneity through playing Mbira, a sacred Zimbabwean musical instrument that was banned during colonization. This begins his journey of building community and creating alternative spaces in Toronto and Zimbabwe, where he and others can reconnect to their indigenous ways of being and knowledge systems that were lost in the fire of colonialism —Director Adrienne Amato
My first thoughts on this film were about how many Zimbabweans were living in Montreal and why have I not heard of this instrument and its people and their origins. Having visited Zimbabwe in 1974 before leaving South Africa for Vancouver, Canada, why did I not know anything about them or even seen a mbira? We did see the ruins and Bulawayo, and did a Safari, but we never traveled to Salisbury, now known as Harare. We probably never did much of the North Eastern territory.
Thankfully I now know a lot more after seeing this terrific documentary. Moyo ‘s passion for his music and the Mbira and wanting to learn more about his culture and the origins of his people is so strong, that we want to go with him on his journey.
What also makes the film so unique is that he has his own family who have grown up in Canada, and have inherited his passion for music and his culture. With his younger son playing the Mbira and both children speaking Shona and wanting to know more about the history and the people.
It seems that none of his family have been to Zimbabwe. He is constantly travelling back and forth to Zimbabwe and struggles with where he wants to be in Canada or Zim (a term we often used in S.A.) I kept wondering how he could afford to travel back and forth. I got my answer when I found this article which is also linked above the review.
The article also surprised me about the mbira instrument being more popular in Western Canada than in its Eastern Counterpart.
A wonderful documentary that hopefully will be shown on some media platforms in Canada.
