Bobi Wine: The People's President, previously titled Bobi Wine: Ghetto President, is a 2022 Ugandan-British-American documentary film written and directed by Christopher Sharp and Moses Bwayo. It chronicles the presidential campaign of popular Ugandian singer Bobi Wine against long-ruling regime leader Yoweri Museveni.[2] The film won a Peabody Award at the 84th ceremony for "offering up a frank and urgent Portrait of an African artists driven to champion the power of the people in the face of a ruling class who'd rather silence him.[3] It premiered out of competition at the 79th edition of the Venice Film Festival.[4][5][6] At the 96th Academy Awards, it was nominated for the Best Documentary Feature Film award.
Release
This film was selected to be screened out of competition at the 79th Venice International Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on 1 September 2022.[7] National Geographic, in partnership with Variance Films, gave the film a limited theatrical release beginning in New York and Los Angeles on 28 July 2023.[8]
Reception
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of 42 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's consensus reads: "Sobering and enlightening, this politically charged documentary takes a captivating look at the life of Bobi Wine: The People's President and his fight for democracy."[9]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 71 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[10]
"Offering up a frank and urgent portrait of an African artist driven to champion the power of the people in the face of a ruling class who’d rather silence him"
