Benta a young girl from a well to do family finds her life turned upside down following the death of her parents in a road accident. Suddenly she is forced to become a househelp for a not very pleasant family.

CAST
Janet Kirina (Benta),
Cajetan Boy (Phillip),
Salome Kinyanjui (Tabitha),
Dan Mwangi (Dedan),
Nice Githinji (Sheana),
Betty Ngao (Beryl), Melvin Alusa (Jim),
Mike Rewa (Robert).


Benta (Janet Karina of "Tahidi high" series) grew up in a middle class family with a seemingly bright future until her parents perished in a road accident. At the time, she was only 15 and the middle born of three siblings, her and her brothers found themselves orphaned. The presence of the extended family during the funeral of her parents might have given this newly orphaned child a ray of hope, but there was none and matters were further compounded when relatives and auctioneers descended on what was formerly the family home and looted all they could lay their hands on. Benta and her two brothers then get kicked out of their home by a ruthless landlord and like many other orphans, they headed for the slums. Now at 17 years, Benta is out of school, her older brother Jim (Melvin Alusa), is unable to get any gainful employment as he bears the stigma of being from the slums and her younger brother Robert (Mike Rewa) needs to complete his education if they are ever to escape the cycle of poverty it falls on her to provide for her siblings.. She has three choices - to look for a husband, become a prostitute or get a job that has some decency to it. This is how she ends up at the Fulani's, as domestic help….

Benta was written by Cajetan Boy in 1998 and was the first play by a Kenyan to be staged at the Phoenix Players Theatre, Kenya's only semi-professional repertoire theatre. Benta was later published through the kindness of Ms. Gail Meighan and has been translated into various vernacular languages and performed by numerous university, church and theatre groups, always to positive response. The movie is directed by Mary Migui of Sisimka Productions Ltd. Director of Photography is Chris Rohio, while sound and editing are done by Richard Ngugi and Wanjugu Ndirangu respectively.

In English and Swahili with English subtitles.

Subjects:
Boy, Cajetan - Film adaptations.
Household employees - Kenya - Drama.
Brothers and sisters - Drama.
Families - Drama.
Orphans - Drama

Sisimka (Production company), Producer
Et Cetera Productions., Producer, Distributor