Editor’s Pitch

It’s never easy to look at cruelty and abuse in the face and make something positive of the experience, but this is a film that shows what seems impossible, possible. The struggle has been hard and continues to be hard, and yet it is the dignity and compassion shown by the women in this film that is a sheer delight. They’re an example to us all of how we can (and should) stand up for what we believe in.



Umoja: The Village Where Men Are Forbidden is an against-the-odds journey of women asserting their humanity and dignity against cruel, abusive and divisive cultural convention. Set in Northern Kenya , a group of tribal Samburu women, shamed by their communities after having claimed to have been raped by British soldiers stationed nearby, band together to establish a village.

This village, set in the dry grasslands, they name Umoja [unity] - and it is there’s alone.

Directors Jean Crousillac and Jean-Marc Sainclair show how an initially grim situation has been transformed into a hugely positive one for change. Women, so long taken for granted, treated as second class citizens, and often ritually mutilated via female circumcision, now have a place where they feel safe and in control of their destiny.

While the story tells many women’s stories, it is Rebecca Lolosoli, Umoja’s matriarch, who forms the film’s guide as she travels throughout the country to spread the word and give power to women who have known nothing but powerlessness. Her attitude is modern, practical and assertive, one that creates the conditions for real justice. For the first time men who attempt to attack women are arrested and taken to the police.

The women’s success has made them a threat to the traditionally male-dominated culture and attacks have been common. Incredibly, the women have hired male soldiers to guard the village at night, a reversing of gender control.

Lolosoli’s journey to gain funding for the changes she want to make for her own people lead to the Aficacities Summit, where young women plainly state their plight to the male leaders of the country. Stories of hunger and of HIV/AIDs are not something the Kenyan leaders want the world to hear about. And yet Lolosoli is positive about the other women she has met and even considers a political future to be within her grasp..

Umoja is a delicate, warm, quietly proud documentary about personal responsibility and the power of education to champion human rights. What is doesn’t do is give both sides of the Sambura story – the tribal men refused to talk to the directors’ camera or explain their actions. But their actions speak louder than any words they might have said.