Namibia Up is a revelatory film by any standards and in every sense of the word. Its profound and nuanced exploration of a diverse group of 18-year-olds in Namibia is a revelation about their lives, their traditions and customs, their culture and their families. The film brilliantly explores each of these aspects of their lives through a series of interviews which carefully examine their hopes, disappointments, loves and fears, dreams and ambitions. The film holds our attention throughout this all-too-short masterpiece both through the interviews and an inspired juxtaposition of the vast landscapes where the young people live, providing a background not only to the people there but the country. This is thrillingly enhanced with a musical score that never intrudes, always supports the narrative.

While the film brings to mind Michael Apted’s documentary series starting with Seven UP, Marta Van Patten, the director and Amber Gayle Thalmayer, producer mark out their own individual, meaningful and very different thematic and geographic territory for their film and establish their own distinctive and powerful voice. The most poignant moments in the film reflect on the relationship between the 18-year-olds and their parents and between each of the characters’ relationships with past, present and future. The interviews elicit from all of them a strong sense of tradition, a deep respect by the young for their family and the past, while also acknowledging an urgent need to seek their own individual paths for the future.

It is a bold and refreshing venture that Van Patten and Thalmayer have undertaken and that will continue to develop. The team plans to follow the young people every four years, and I, for one, can’t wait for the next installment in 2027! 

–Kevin Nash, PhD Film Studies, Director of award winning film: Waking David,  instructor in film studies at Queen Mary, University of London