Gwenyambira Simon Mashoko

In the footsteps of several Austrian musicians, who have for years been fascinated by the mbira, film maker Michael Pilz travelled to Zimbabwe, looking for Simon Mashoko, an old mbira master. The mbira is an unusual African musical instrument that belongs in the traditions of the Shona people and has to be played in a very specific way. Pilz visits Mashoko in his village and becomes enchanted by this unusual man. The film incorporates several older recordings of previous encounters with Mashoko, but is primarily made up of the long contemplatives recordings of Mashoko and his surroundings that Pilz made during his third visit. Mashoko (85) is part of a very old line of Shona musicians. Mbira music has never broken through in the West, but in his home country, Mashoko was very popular for a while. That era is now behind him, and these days he lives a fairly forgotten life in a distant corner of the country with, according to the Harare Sunday Herald, a large family that lives off him.