Over the years, the Swahili language has increasingly found its place in the international film industry. While some films simply feature short transcripts of Swahili, there are others that feature Swahili entirely as the primary language used in dialogue between the characters. Below are some of the award-winning and critically acclaimed films that have featured the use of the Swahili language in their transcripts.

The last king of Scotland

While this film was based on a fictional account of the life of the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, the main language spoken by the African characters in The Last King of Scotland was Swahili. However, English is the main language of the film. In the film, Forest Whitaker played Idi Amin and spoke a lot of Swahili when talking to other African characters. During scenes where Swahili is spoken, English subtitles are provided so that non-Swahili speakers understand what the characters are saying. For his role, Forest Whitaker won the Best Leading Actor award at the 2007 Oscars, among other accolades.

Nowhere in africa

Nowhere in Africa is a German film released in 2001 that features a lot of dialogue in Swahili. Other languages ​​that appear in this movie are German and English. This film was adapted from an autobiographical novel of the same name written by Stefanie Zweig. The novel was based on a real-life Jewish family that emigrated to Kenya to start farming during WWII to escape the wrath of the Nazis in Germany. Directed by Caroline Link, the film starred Julianne Kohler and Merab Ninidze. This film also received an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2002, among other awards and critical acclaim.

Outside Africa

Out of Africa is an Oscar-winning film based on the novel of the same name and written by Isak Dinesen, also known as Karen Blixen. In 1985, the film was adapted from director Sydney Pollack’s novel and starred Meryl Streep as Karen Blixen, with Robert Redford portraying Denis Finch-Hatton. Because the film was based in Kenya and its main characters were Kenyan settlers, the Swahili language is used extensively in the film’s dialogue. This is mainly found in the conversations between the main characters and the African characters, who represent Kenyans who in most cases had not learned the English language in the 1930s, which is the period in which the film is set. .

Other blockbusters that have made use of Swahili include Lion King (1994), Mighty Joe Young (1998), George of The Jungle, Madagascar (2006), and Inception (2010).