Jua Kali (Feature Film)

Synopsis

Diana, a single mother and housekeeper prepares
breakfast for her young son. However, she adds
alcohol to his meal to ensure he falls asleep while
she goes to work. She takes with her two mobile
phones, one of which will continue to ring
throughout the day. Diana visits various homes,
diligently cleaning up the messes left behind.
She encounters Odhis, a client who has shown
her kindness in the past by lending her money to
escape an abusive relationship. However, her
feelings for Odhis are challenged when she
discovers him in a compromising situation with a
female companion. Diana's travels take her to the
upscale home of Lucy, a pregnant expatriate from
Britain.
In a moment of respite, Diana surreptitiously
plunges into Lucy's pool, finding solace in the
familiar waters that evoke memories of her
upbringing on the shores of Lake Victoria. Later,
Lucy, offers Diana a permanent position and living
quarters. She however confronts Lucy about her
family's nomadic tendencies and the trail of
housekeepers left behind every time they move
to a new country.
Throughout the afternoon as Diana navigates the
city traffic, we encounter snapshots of other
workers toiling in the day’s heat. When she arrives
back at her neighbourhood, Diana stops by a
vegetable shop where a chilling conversation with
the seller reveals that Diana is pregnant and the
woman selling her vegetables is to perform her
abortion. Diana hands over her day’s earnings to
the woman in a brown envelope, and even though
she is short by a significant sum, the abortionist is
willing to be patient.
Diana returns to her house. She enters her
darkened home to find her son playing alone.
Unable to ignore it any longer, finally picks up the
call she's been avoiding all day. On the other end,
her mother, living with Diana's siblings in their rural
home, launches into a verbal assault, berating
Diana for her decision to split up with her husband.
With familial obligations, single motherhood, and
an impending abortion weighing on her, Diana
must weigh her next steps very carefully.