Supa Modo (2018)

There is a particular kind of small film that slips past the multiplex entirely and finds its audience through word of mouth, festival screenings and the quiet recommendation of someone who watched it alone on a Tuesday night and couldn't quite shake it. Supa Modo, a 2018 co-production between Germany and Kenya, is very much that kind of film. Running to a modest 74 minutes, it tells the story of Jo, a nine-year-old girl who is terminally ill and brought back to her rural village of Maweni to spend her remaining time surrounded by family. Jo's great passion is action movies and superhero fantasy, and what grows from that passion, with the involvement of her sister, her mother and the community around them, forms the heart of the picture. It is the sort of premise you might expect to find handled with either saccharine gloss or crushing misery. Director Likarion Wainaina, making his feature debut, chooses neither.

The film was produced by One Fine Day Films and Ginger Ink Films, and it sits comfortably within a wave of Kenyan and broader African cinema that has been steadily building its own identity, separate from the Western gaze that so often flattens the continent into a single, reductive image. Wainaina brings a genuinely grounded visual sensibility to the material, one that treats rural Kenyan life as simply life: specific, textured, neither exotic nor grim. It is worth noting that Germany has been an interesting co-production partner for films with a strong social or humanist focus in recent years (you can see a similar spirit at work in other German co-productions I have covered, such as Lingui, the Sacred Bonds and Tiger Stripes). The budget here is clearly modest, but that modesty suits the material rather than working against it.

The cast is largely made up of Kenyan actors, some familiar to local audiences, others considerably less so. At the centre of everything is Stycie Waweru as Jo, and the film rises or falls on her performance. Waweru was nine years old during production, and the role asks a great deal: physical frailty alongside inner fire, humour alongside sorrow, without tipping into the kind of overwrought child performance that can make an otherwise fine film very difficult to watch. Alongside her, Nyawara Ndambia plays Mwix, Jo's older, more volatile sister, and Marrianne Nungo takes on the role of their mother, Kathryn. Johnson Gitau Chege and Humphrey Maina round out the principal cast. What the ensemble creates together, particularly in the scenes involving the wider village, is something that feels less performed than observed, which is a considerable achievement given the emotional weight the story carries. For anyone who has warmed to character-led, community-centred dramas such as Yi Yi, there is genuine common ground here in the way ordinary people are allowed to simply be ordinary people, even in extraordinary circumstances.

Supa Modo (2018) is a tender, heartfelt Kenyan drama that finds profound humanity in the simplest of stories. It follows nine-year-old Jo, a terminally ill girl obsessed with action movies who dreams of being a superhero, and the village that rallies together to make her fantasy real. The premise alone is enough to tug at heartstrings, but what elevates the film is its gentle authenticity: the performances feel lived-in, especially from young Stycie Waweru as Jo, whose quiet resilience and imagination anchor every scene. Shot with warmth and intimacy, the film captures rural Kenyan life with respect and nuance, avoiding poverty exploitation or melodrama. Instead, it focuses on community, love, and the small acts of kindness that bind people together in the face of grief. The supporting cast (neighbors, family members, local kids) respond to Jo’s wish not with pity, but with creativity and joy, turning her final days into something magical. It’s deeply emotional without being manipulative, and the cultural specificity adds richness rarely seen in mainstream cinema. That said, the story is undeniably predictable. From the outset, you can see every beat coming (the diagnosis, the collective effort, the bittersweet farewell) and while the emotions are earned, the narrative arc offers few surprises. It leans heavily on sentiment, which works because the characters feel real, but it doesn’t challenge or complicate its themes in unexpected ways. Supa Modo may follow a familiar path, but it walks it with grace, dignity, and genuine heart. It’s not a film about death, it’s a film about how we honor life, imagination, and each other. Predictable? Yes. Powerful? Absolutely. Bring tissues, but also leave with a smile.

What stays with me, a good while after the credits, is that sense of a film that knows exactly what it is and makes no apologies for it. Yes, it is small in scope. Yes, you know roughly where it is going from the first few minutes. But there is real craft in the way Wainaina holds back from sentimentality even as he leans into sentiment, and that is a harder line to walk than it looks. I found myself thinking about the community aspect most of all: the neighbours and kids who don't stand around wringing their hands but actually do something, and how rare it is to see grief treated as a collective, creative act rather than a private one. If you want something that will give your emotions a proper workout without leaving you feeling manipulated, this one earns its tears honestly. Short, quiet, and not easily forgotten.

Rating: ★★★  | Year: 2018  | Watched: 2026-04-22

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Trailer

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