The Woman Who Poked The Leopard

This account of Ugandan academic, poet, and activist Stella Nyanzi’s attempt to challenge the violent status quo of President Yoweri Museveni makes for gripping viewing. Nyanzi is a force of nature and does not mince her words, using ‘radical rudeness’ as a central tool in her project to challenge the autocratic regime—although viewers might conclude that Nyanzi’s rudeness is not so much a strategy as the behaviour of a woman who has simply had enough of state-led male oppression. At the beginning of the film, we learn that Nyanzi went to prison in 2017 for a pointedly profane poem in which she ridiculed Museveni. In the wake of her release, she decides to run for Parliament, distributing posters and flyers in the slums of Kampala with the help of her children, whose perspective the film ultimately makes central. As the election campaigns gather momentum, things become increasingly violent and it seems as if Nyanzi might have to leave her beloved Uganda.