Watu Wote (sometimes called Watu Wote: All of Us) is a 2017 short film (22 minutes) directed by Katya Benrath.
The film is set in Kenya in December 2015 and is based on a true incident. Kenya is being plagued by incursions from Al-Shabaab, a Muslim terrorist group based in Somalia, which borders Kenya. Jua is a Christian woman who boards a bus in Nairobi, headed off on a 31-hour journey into the countryside to visit her ailing mother. The bus stops in a village for the night, where Jua is chatted up by a Muslim passenger, Salah, who is headed to meet his pregnant wife. Jua responds to Salah's friendly overtures by telling him to leave her alone, because Muslim terrorists killed her husband and baby girl.
With dawn the next morning, the bus heads off again. It's still early when gun-toting Muslim terrorists seize the bus. The terrorists force everyone off and demand that the Muslim passengers identify the Christians, so that they can be killed.
Tropes:
- African Terrorists: As this film is based on a real incident, it dramatizes a real-life terrorist group, Al-Shabaab, which is based in Syria but operates throughout east Africa. They attack a bus in Kenya.
- Dramatic Gun Cock: One of the terrorists spots the woman sitting next to Jua on the bus. He says "You were sitting next to a Christian woman," then dramatically works the action on his machine gun before saying "Where is she?"
- Face Framed in Shadow: Jua is sitting on the bus, which is not due to leave for several hours. She is creeped out by another man on the bus who is looking at her, his face partially lit by the streetlight outside. He turns out to be completely harmless, but the scene establishes the ominous mood.
- Gratuitous English: Salah is staring down one of the terrorists, telling him that they'll have to kill "all of us" because the passengers will never identify the Christians. The terrorist leader twice tells his minion in Somali, "Kill him!", before switching to English to scream "Shoot!"
- Hand Gag: The Muslim woman with a baby sitting next to Jua, who has not said a word to her throughout the trip, claps a hand over Jua's mouth as the terrorists board the bus. She then hurriedly puts a spare hijab from her bag over Jua, and takes the rosary that Jua the Christian had in her hand.
- In the Back: The terrorists flee when they see police coming, but one of them makes sure to turn and shoot Salah in the back as all the passengers run back to the bus.
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: Ends with Jua, who has made it to her home village after the terrorist attack, walking away with her mother and other family members.
- "Shut Up!" Gunshot: The bus passengers are all screaming and wailing outside the bus, when the terrorist leader fires his gun into the air to get their attention.
- Trashcan Bonfire: Such a bonfire in the opening scene, when Jua is walking through a pedestrian underpass, establishes the poverty in that particular part of Nairobi.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: A title card near the end says that the Muslim man on the bus who stood up to the terrorists was named Salah Farah, and he died of his gunshot wounds a month later.
