Modern Moby Dick Story To Air At Sundance

Kibwe Tavares, whose previous short film Robots of Brixton won an award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, has released a new trailer for his latest offering: Jonah.

The film follows Mbwana, a young man living in Zanzibar who discovers the world's biggest fish and makes his town a famous tourist attraction. However, as the years go by, he realises that he preferred his home the way it was before it commercialised itself, and sets out to take revenge on the fish that started it all.

It's an interesting take on the old story of Moby Dick, but could also have undercurrents of the bible story of Jonah: trying to escape the inevitable, Jonah is defeated by a giant fish and has to accept his fate. Whether that happens in this film remains to be seen.

It also possibly offers a critique on the many places in Africa that hollow themselves out to garner attention from tourists and thus find a way to survive, developing economically in exchange for losing their unique environments and natural vitality.

Just from the trailer you can tell that the visuals for this short are stunning, proving that Taveres' studio Factory Fifteen well deserves their many awards for animation.

Daniel Kaluuya (Psychoville, Black Mirror) stars as Mbwana, with Malachi Kirby as his best friend Juma.

Watch the trailer here:

Jonah Trailer from Factory Fifteen on Vimeo.