‘The Woman Who Poked The Leopard’ review: Intense portrait of Ugandan activist Stella Nyanzi

Dir: Endurance Nitumwesiga. Uganda/South Africa/Germany, US. 2025. 108mins

Anger bubbles beneath Endurance Nitumwesiga’s immersive portrait of Ugandan feminist poet, human rights activist and anthropologist Stella Nyanzi. It’s an emotion we see Nyanzi faucet into repeatedly – not simply within the written phrase however when confronted with day-to-day injustice in the course of the course of Nitumwesiga’s intense however scattergun dive into her life. The documentary, which weaves collectively archive footage with the author and educational’s dwelling life, exhibits Nyanzi has each purpose to be enraged, not simply concerning the state of her homeland however her personal therapy by it.

Nitumwesiga’s feminist method provides attraction

The Lady Who Poked The Leopard is more likely to ring a bell with audiences who have been drawn to fellow Ugandan (and Oscar-nominated) documentary Bobi Wine: The Folks’s President, with Nitumwesiga’s feminist method including attraction. It’s off to a powerful begin, with its world premiere at DOK Leipzig intently adopted by a global premiere at IDFA and additional pageant play certainly beckons.

The movie is bookended by segments in Bavaria, Germany, the place Nyanzi has lived in exile together with her teenage daughter Baraka and twin sons Kato and Wasswa since 2022. It’s right here that one in all Nyanzi’s sons reads a poem his mom initially posted on Fb in 2018. In it, she describes Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni (the ’leopard’ of the movie’s title) – who rose to energy within the wake of the 1986 Ugandan Civil Warfare and has manipulated the regulation to stay in submit ever since – as a “soiled delinquent dictator”. That’s as well mannered because it will get in a piece that’s blisteringly scathing and no-holds barred in its evaluation of Museveni’s lifetime of corruption, and its want that he had died at delivery.

The poem primarily made Nyanzi an enemy of the state. She was jailed in consequence, struggling unwell therapy which precipitated a miscarriage. Nitumwesiga’s resolution to make use of a easy black display screen as Nyanzi recounts this incident lends it weight and affect. Extra usually, nevertheless, the footage tends to bounce round between totally different episodes in Nyanzi’s life, from the lack of her college job because of her arrest to her run for political workplace in Kampala within the 2021 elections.

Nitumwesiga has beforehand made a number of quick movies, together with Jangu and Heaven Sounds Boring, and it’s a problem to tackle a fast-moving life like Nyanzi’s. Somewhat extra sedate framing materials can be welcome, particularly when it comes to her historical past of activism, reasonably than simply repeatedly thrusting us into her confrontations. The way in which the letters of the varied intertitles seem in a random order that makes them more durable to soak up can also be a triumph of fashion over data.

Nyanzi’s clashes with the varied authorities do give a vibrant sense of simply how formidable she is, as she takes on a choose and bares her breasts in courtroom or just refuses to be cowed by police intimidation. Her approachable aspect can also be on show, whether or not she’s chatting with opposition feminine politicians or on the marketing campaign path. Nitumwesiga retains one eye on Nyanzi’s household too, displaying how the campaigner’s lifetime of activism takes its toll on her relationship together with her youngsters. The documentarian presents them house to specific their emotions; at one level the movie takes on the rawness of a household remedy session.

Music is deftly employed all through, from the Lacrimosa from Mozart’s Requiem, which accompanies Nyanzi’s poem about Museveni and a potted historical past of his time in workplace, to the rhythmic conventional Kiganda music that dovetails completely with Nyanzi’s power. The Ugandan nationwide anthem, ‘Oh Uganda, Land of Magnificence’, can also be used with scathing irony. It neatly illustrates the purpose of Nyanzi’s activism – that phrases might be highly effective weapons when used with precision.