The 8th annual Kalasha Awards at the Safari Park Hotel will take over Nairobi this weekend.
One film looking to make some noise at the awards ceremony is Poacher which is nominated in five categories; including Best Short Film, Best Director (Tom Whitworth), Best Actor (Brian Ogola) Best Supporting Actor (Maina Olwenya) and Best DOP.
The 28-minute long Poacher tells a timely, gritty story of a desperate farmer, Mutua, who runs into trouble after he steals a stash of blood ivory from a gang of international terrorists. It all happens in the backdrop of the conservation crisis involving the illegal ivory trade which is threatening extinction of the African elephant. Elephants will be extinct by 2025 at the current rate of decline.
Poacher is a drama about the human cost of those involved in conservation. Writers Davina Leonard and Tom Whitworth wanted to move away from the spent format of a wildlife documentary to tell the tale of the men and women who risk their own lives for the sake of protecting Kenya's animals against money-hungry poachers.
Poacher was filmed over six intense days in Tsavo. The production involved over 30 cast and crew members. The end result is a brilliant reminder of the skill of our artists, the beauty of our landscapes, and the importance of our elephants.
The film has already gathered some plaudits in international film festival circles, including the Romanian Short Film Festival where it won a "Best Editor" gong for Franki Ashiruka.
The Kalasha Awards ceremony will go down at Safari Park Hotel this Saturday, November 24.
MORE: The Full List of 2018 Kalasha Awards Nominees

Poacher Trailer - 2018 from Tom Whitworth on Vimeo.