Jonah (2013)
Short films rarely get the sustained attention they deserve, and Kibwe Tavares's Jonah (2013) is a good case in point. Running at just seventeen minutes, it is the kind of work that gets a festival circuit run, picks up a few well-deserved column inches, and then quietly disappears from the conversation, which is a shame. Co-produced by a consortium of British outfits including Factory Fifteen, Jellyfish Pictures, and Shine Pictures, with backing from the BFI, the film was shot on location in Tanzania and brings together a premise that sounds almost fable-like on paper: two young men in a small coastal town photograph an enormous fish leaping from the sea, and what follows is anything but ordinary. The tagline sells it as a story about the old and the new, which is accurate enough, though it undersells the degree to which Tavares wrings something genuinely strange and melancholy from that simple setup. For a sense of how short-form and non-Western cinema can carry real thematic weight, it is worth glancing at our coverage of Obambo and Nom Tèw, both of which operate in a similar space of folklore-inflected storytelling from outside the Hollywood mainstream.
Tavares came to Jonah with a background in architecture and visual design, and it shows. He had already attracted attention with his earlier short Robots of Brixton (2011), a piece of speculative animation that demonstrated a confident visual intelligence and a willingness to use genre trappings as a lens for social commentary. Jonah extends that approach into live-action territory, using Tanzania's coastline and the gradual transformation of its fictional fishing village as the canvas for something that is simultaneously a parable, a satire, and a fairly pointed piece of environmental critique. The film draws loosely on the tradition of the big-fish story, a motif that cuts across cultures, but Tavares is less interested in the fish itself than in what happens to people and places when something extraordinary becomes a commodity.
The cast is small but well chosen. Daniel Kaluuya appears here a few years before his profile rose significantly with Get Out (2017) and his subsequent Oscar win for Judas and the Black Messiah (2021), and even in a brief runtime he brings the kind of watchful, grounded presence that would later make him so effective in larger roles. Malachi Kirby, who has since built a solid career in British television (most notably in Roots and Black Mirror), shares the screen comfortably with him, and the two have an easy, believable rapport. Louis Mahoney, a veteran of British film and television with credits stretching back decades, rounds out the principal cast and provides a sense of texture and lived-in experience that anchors the more fantastical elements. It is, on balance, a polished but understated ensemble for what is, when all is said and done, a seventeen-minute short.
Jonah (2013) is a brilliant short film directed by Kibwe Tavares, and it’s a quiet revelation. Hailing from Tanzania (a country that produces very few films on the global stage) this is a remarkably impressive effort that packs a massive thematic punch into a very tight runtime.
The story itself is deceptively simple: a local man snaps a photograph, and right in the background, there’s a massive, leaping fish. It’s a seemingly innocent moment, but it acts as the catalyst for a wild, unpredictable chain reaction that completely upends his world and his community.
What follows is a fascinating, slightly surreal descent into the dangers of tourism, sensationalism, and rampant capitalism. Almost overnight, that quaint, peaceful little fishing village is transformed into a bustling, neon-soaked metropolis. It’s a striking visual metaphor for how quickly modern greed can swallow up traditional ways of life. Tavares doesn't hold back in showing the devastating cost of this so-called "progress", highlighting the severe pollution and the tragic destruction of the very nature and sealife that drew the crowds in the first place. It’s a sharp, poignant critique of how we consume and exploit the natural world for a quick buck.
At the centre of this chaotic whirlwind is the man who took the photo, and his personal arc is just as compelling as the societal collapse around him. He quickly finds himself thrust into the spotlight, reveling in the sudden wealth and excess that his viral image brings him. But, as the old adage goes, what goes up must come down. Watching him lose his moral compass and ultimately end up completely penniless is a tragic, yet deeply satisfying narrative payoff. It serves as a stark reminder of the fleeting, hollow nature of fame built on sensationalism.
Considering this is one of the very few movies to come out of Tanzania, the sheer ambition and execution on display here are nothing short of inspiring. Kibwe Tavares has crafted a visually stunning, thought-provoking fable that feels both incredibly local and universally relevant. It crams a massive amount of social commentary into its short runtime without ever feeling rushed or preachy.
Jonah is a really impressive, highly engaging piece of cinema that proves you don't need a massive budget to tell a powerful, visually arresting story.
Jonah sits in that particular category of short film that justifies the format rather than simply using it as a calling card. Tavares has since moved into feature development, and on this evidence there is every reason to watch that progress with interest. The film is available through BFI channels and is well worth the quarter-hour it asks of you. Fans of visually ambitious, socially conscious fantasy from outside the anglophone mainstream might also find something to enjoy in our look at The OceanMaker, another short that uses the natural world as a vehicle for bigger ideas. Short films are easy to scroll past. This one is worth stopping for.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 2013 | Watched: 2026-07-06
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
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