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Bala Bala Sese Movie Review

Bala Bala Sese is a 2015 Ugandan drama film directed by Lukyamuzi Bashir and starring Michael Kasaija and Natasha Sinayobye. It is a very chaotic movie that rarely works.

In the outskirts of Sese Island, John is madly in love with Maggie and both are willing to take their love forward. Facing abuses and harassment by malicious Maggie’s father Kasirivu, John, helped by his young brother Alex is determined to take in all but to retain the love of his life especially when he finds out that he has a contender village tycoon who is also lining up for Maggie.

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Ugandan cinema is pretty small with only a handful of movies released up until this point and only recently they’ve started sending films for Academy’s consideration. With that in mind, Bala Bala Sese as a recent film from the country is one of the most popular in Uganda, but watching it objectively, it has numerous flaws that are apparent throughout.

One is the directing from Lukyamuzi Bashir. He is a director who directed some music videos and a couple of filming projects, so his lack of experience ended up hurting this film as the approach to telling this story was very messy and indecisive.

My main issue with the movie is its emphasis on a huge amount of characters, thus nobody stood a chance of being well developed or memorable at any capacity. The worst offenders are the main two characters as both Maggie and John are very forgettable and uninteresting. The performances are fine, but they could not elevate the very weak characterization at hand.

Bala Bala Sese to me obviously mirrored the classic Romeo and Juliet tale with a few classic twists of its own. The cinematography and solid dialogue are some of the highlights along with a couple of emotionally affecting sequences, but for the most part this was an overly basic, been there, done that storyline that needed more of those traditional African elements to distinguish it from its classic roots.

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Bala Bala Sese is well shot, solidly acted and featuring a couple of effective sequences, but for the most part this is a classic Romeo and Juliet-inspired tale that did not distinguish itself apart enough from numerous other similar stories. The dialogue is good, but the characterization and the directing left a lot to be desired in this overly chaotic film that lacks a clear focus.

My Rating – 3

This is the 5th film in my African Cinema Marathon where I will watch one film from each African country every day. Next up is 🇹🇳.