Villa Sunset

VILLA SUNSET. It’s tea time. The elderly ladies gather on the terrace under the bougainvilleas to chat about the unusually hot weather and the latest news from Britain, so far away. They are frail-looking creatures, these dear old ladies, but when they start telling the stories of their lives you realize that they are tough survivors of an era that will never return. Their husbands, long dead, were settlers and officials in British hast Africa, no Kenya was then called. But the ladies are still very much alive and eager to tell about the rise and fall of Colonialism in Africa. They live in the suburbs of Nairobi in a large, private institution surrounded by a tall hedge. The house is old, with long corridors where the African maids carry morning trays up to the inhabitants pas a huge picture of Queen Elizabeth, here they sit, side by side like rare birds, is small rooms, with a few photographs and other memorabilia from a soon forgotten period. Each of the ladies has an amazing story to tell. About hardships and high rewards, about love and hatred, and about bitter fights with the Africans during the Mau-Mau revolt that let to Kenya’s independence. The rhythm of the documentary follows the daily rhythm in “Villa Sunset”, from early morning till lights are out. “There will be no more white settlers like us in Africa”, one lady says, in conclusion. “It was wonderful while it lasted, but de adventure is over”.