The Paradox of Pain in Tosh Gitonga’s Nairobi Half Life

Abstract

The paper aims at finding out what makes crime fiction enchanting and overwhelming thereby arresting the audience and how the filmmakers manage to re-dramatize pain and still maintain pleasure making it possible for audiences to feel pleasure while watching atrocities of crime and objects of distress which would be unpleasant or even horrific if set before them in real life. The paper focuses closely on the narrative and cinematic techniques used by the film producers as well as  analyzing the responses from selected respondents to determine if the crime film under study;  Nairobi Half Life entertain the audience or not. The question guiding the methodology is “how do film producers in Nairobi Half Life incorporate cinematic techniques to transform imaginations of crime and violence into a pleasurable discourse engaging viewers while influencing the understanding of the society. The study’s response to these demands will take two significant pertinent dimensions. First of all it ill interrogate the techniques film producers use to paint the crime and violence in the films positively, the study will then interview selected respondents and analyze their responses to determine the effects of the techniques used in the films on the audience.