Generally speaking, there are two kinds of people living under an authoritarian regime: there are those who just blindly accept that this is the way their lives have to be, and then there are those who stand up and fight in some way, even if it is only launching their own small, intimate rebellion against a system that they feel does not represent them. Mercifully, we have started to see the latter become far more prominent – and as they often say, all it takes to start a revolution is one person with the steadfast belief to change the world in some way. This is where we start to discuss Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, otherwise known by his stage name Bobi Wine – a decade ago, he was merely an actor and musician who was well-loved by his Ugandan compatriots, but known primarily as an entertainer. However, his work was always politically-charged, and he made a concerted effort to integrate himself with the rural communities, feeling like they weren’t being well-represented by the current government, which led him to seek political office. His efforts to make a change are documented in Bobi Wine: The People’s President, in which directors Christopher Sharp and Moses Bwayo take the opportunity to follow Bobi Wine’s rise over the past decade, starting with his election as a councilor of a rural portion of Uganda, and going to the present day, paying particularly close attention to the 2021 election, in which he set out to challenge incumbent president Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, who has held power since 1986, and was currently seeking his sixth consecutive term, even going so far as to have the constitution changed to facilitate his desire to hold onto power. A complex, eye-opening documentary that covers some fascinating but challenging subject matter, Bobi Wine: The People’s President is incredibly honest and frank about certain concepts, which it explores in vivid detail, seeking answers to some impossible questions.

At its core, Bobi Wine: The People’s President is structured as a story of two individuals, both possessing broad political ambitions but differing in nearly every other way, ranging from age to their reasons for wanting to hold the highest office in Uganda. One is a grizzled, power-hungry political veteran who has gone from a hero of his people due to the part he played in the Ugandan revolution several decades before, to the subject of scorn and disdain from he same constituents that previously viewed him as an admirable figure. The other is an ambitious young upstart who dares to challenge someone who genuinely believes that he is unimpeachable and infallible – and from the start, we know that Bobi Wine’s efforts don’t succeed (or at least as it stands, he has not been successful in winning the presidency – but he continues to fight for this cause), but he does manage to shake the foundation of the presidency enough to become a notorious figure. Bobi Wine: The People’s President is structured as a modern David and Goliath story, at least in terms of how it depicts someone defying the odds and taking it upon himself to bring about change rather than waiting for it to emerge organically. Bobi Wine takes matters into his own hands, and while this does continuously put his life in danger, he views it as a necessary sacrifice. He is either going to be a leader that brings change, or a martyr that dies for a cause in which he believes – and as we see throughout the film, Bobi Wine is more than willing to face the outcry and consequences, since he likely is guided by the knowledge that everyone in entertainment knows to be true: all publicity is good publicity. The very fact that he lost an election in a landslide, but yet is still heralded as a hero and continues to be one of the most important political figures in Africa at the moment is all the proof we need to know that he is on the right track to making change.

This film is made by a pair of directors who have enough reverence for Bobi Wine to celebrate his efforts, but who are not blinded by the fact that he was fighting a losing battle – but the intention here was not to tell the story of someone overcoming obstacles to become an unexpected victor. As ideal of a conclusion to this story as that may be, it would be short-sighted and perhaps even slightly inappropriate, considering there is a lot of depth and nuance required to tell this story, rather than just presenting it as a story of a lovable underdog. However, the characterization of Bobi Wine is fascinating – most of the film is discursive, never trying to lead us down one path over the other. Its undeniably in favour of the more progressive side, since this is not supposed to be a balanced portrayal of this presidential race (true neutrality in political art is genuinely impossible, and sometimes those that present a general perspective tend to be the most blatant in promoting one side over the other), but it also refuses to be a propagandistic account of its titular figure and his efforts to overthrow the government. Its a subtle and honest account of his attempts bring about change, starting at the grassroots level, where he started by radicalizing those who live on the margins, making it clear to them that they do not need to be complacent to a system that views them as expendable, and that they are more that worthy of a government that cares for them, and will fight for their rights. Bobi Wine has been popularly referred to as the “ghetto president”, the de facto leader of those who are not wealthy or powerful, but yet still have a voice as a result of his efforts to fight for their rights. That’s where the real impact of this film lies, and the primary reason why Bobi Wine: The People’s President is so effective as not only a political documentary, but a social statement as well.

Unfortunately, the nature of Bobi Wine’s ongoing political career means that Bobi Wine: The People’s President is destined to always be viewed as incomplete (although granted, we would all prefer to have a documentary that only covers a portion of his political career than one that ends definitively, since we often find that those who challenge authoratarian regimes rarely manage to get out alive), so we don’t get the triumphant ending we crave, nor do we entirely know what the future holds for this rambunctious and dedicated political voice. Yet, there is something very special about this kind of invigorating, dynamic storytelling that captures only a brief moment of what is still an ongoing issue. It feels current and relevant, and while these tend to age quite poorly (in the time since its release, there have already been further developments), its never rendered redundant, since it not only offers an interesting snapshot of the current state of the subject, but also focuses on elements that are not bound by time. Politics is a constant cycle of repetition, and while the person sitting in the office may change over time, the same anger and despair amongst the population continues, which is what the directors intended to explore here. Bobi Wine may be an underdog, but this isn’t a film designed to place him on a pedestal or imply that he is somehow a valiant hero who hasn’t earned the right to say that he has made change. Instead, he is a broker of peace and someone who stepped forward to challenge a system he saw as unfair, knowing that he would very likely fail and as a result place a target on his back, but willingly stepped forward solely because he knew that he is one of a myriad of voices, and even if he doesn’t break the cycle entirely, his efforts will contribute to the fight. It’s a fair prediction to say Bobi Wine probably won’t ever be President of Uganda (although anything can happen), but he will be remembered as someone who helped the process of toppling the regime, which has not happened yet, but seems to be inevitable. It’s not a mistake that he has also been labelled the “people’s president” – this is a movement not for his glory or vanity, but for the people, whose lives he intends to improve by any means necessary.

Bobi Wine: The People’s President is a fascinating film, and one that sheds a light on the political landscape of a country that many of us neglect. Unfortunately, most of us tend to associate Ugandan politics with the reign of Idi Amin – but some may say that there are correlations between his regime and the current state of the country, even if only in the way that we see a system designed to keep one person in power, while those who rebel are subsequently punished. Thankfully, it is far less inhumane and the violence is seemingly less prominent – but the anger and fear is still present, which is why the arrival of Bobi Wine, who the film resists showing as some messianic figure, is so meaningful, since it signals the fact that someone is willing to step forward and make a change, even if it is small and starts from the communities with the least power, at least in terms of having a seat at the table. It’s a traditional documentary that follows a few years in the life of the subject as he fights for these causes, and there’s nothing particularly bespoke or daring about how the directors handle the material. Instead, the impact comes in giving the voice to those who needed it the most, the marginalized and politically invisible. We hear from the children and the elderly, showing the same sense of despair exists across the generations. The heartfelt moments in which we see Bobi Wine in his domestic life contrasts with his fiery but dedicated public persona, which he has carefully developed to seem like he can bring peace or at least substantial change. It’s a riveting, complex documentary that is honest and carries a lot of meaning, and proves to be extremely effective in all the ways that we would expect from such an intricately-woven piece of political storytelling.