SILVIA IS MY NAME

2 0 2 0 | F I L M U N I V E R S I T Y B A B E L S B E R G | 6 3 M I N . | C O L O R | D O C – F I L M

Silvia lives in southern Kenya and belongs to the Maasai tribe. Despite many dramatic strokes of fate, she fights for the rights of Maasai for her life and that of her children. Her fight for equal rights repeatedly clashes with the traditions of her tribe.

▶︎ STORY · PRODUCTION · TEAM · TRAILER · GALLERY

PRODUCTION
„Silvia Is My Name“ is a production of the Film University Babelsberg in cooperation with Kunsthaus e.V. The project was developed in close collaboration with local activists and with the heartfelt support and involvement of the protagonist, Silvia Sempeyu.

SYNOPSIS
English: The young woman Silvia Sempeyu belongs to the Maasai tribe and lives in southern Kenya, near the Amboseli National Park. With her five children, she lives in a small wooden house near the border town of Loitokitok, right on the border with Tanzania. Silvia lives in the heart of the „Maasailand“, which extends across the borders of East Africa via the Amboseli National Park. She takes a motorcycle taxi to the more remote places in her home country to talk to young women who have become pregnant, have been raped or talk to the older women and explains why the circumcision of their daughters and granddaughters is dangerous for the girls. It calls on like-minded people to defend themselves against the patriarchy, to become independent and independent of men and to invoke state women’s rights. Silvia Sempeyu repeatedly encounters resistance, she is laughed at and some people – including women – react aggressively to their ideas and demands.
Her family was attacked several times, she even had to fear for her own life, and yet she continues to fight.

Deutsch: Die jungen Frau Silvia Sempeyu gehört zum Stamm der Massai und lebt in Südkenia, nahe des Amboseli Nationalparks. Mit ihren fünf Kindern wohnt sie in einer kleinen Holzhütte in der Nähe des Grenzorts Loitokitok, gleich an der Grenze zu Tansania. Silvia lebt im Herzen des Massailandes, welches sich über den Amboseli Nationalparks über die Grenzen Ostafrikas erstreckt. Mit einem Motorradtaxi fährt die in die abgelegeneren Orte ihrer Heimat um mit jungen Frauen zu reden, die minderjährig schwanger geworden sind, vergewaltigt wurden oder redet mit den älteren Frauen und erklärt ihnen, weshalb die Beschneidung ihrer Töchter und Enkelinnen für die Mädchen gefährlich ist. Sie ruft ihre gleichgesinnten auf, sich gegen das Patriarchat zu wehren, sich selbstständig und unabhängig zu machen von den Männern und auf sich auf staatliche Frauenrechte zu berufen. Silvia Sempeyu stößt immer wieder auf Widerstände, sie wird belächelt und manche Menschen – auch Frauen – reagieren aggressiv auf ihre Ideen und Forderungen. Mehrfach wurde ihre Familia angegriffen, sogar um ihr eigenes Leben musste sie bangen und dennoch kämpft sie weiter.

This film tells the story of an idealist.
I met Silvia Sempeyu for the first time in 2012 – back then, I was working in Tanzania, and a friend took me to visit his Maasai family in Kenya for the weekend. Silvia, one of his cousins, told me about her work with women in her community – and so the idea arose to create a portrait of her life as a women’s rights activist.

Over the course of several weeks, we accompanied Silvia in her daily life, witnessing the constant, often invisible struggles against patriarchal structures. Her fight is deeply personal and yet reflects something much larger.

Maasai women face overlapping layers of oppression – cultural, traditional, patriarchal. The challenge ahead is to rethink the structure of the Maasai community so it can preserve its semi-nomadic way of life while embracing a more equitable worldview. Silvia’s story may one day serve as a guidepost for other young women facing similar barriers.

– Max Hegewald, Director