Combining magical realism and post-colonial satire, Imperial Blue is a contemporary take on the “white man in Africa” narrative, set mainly in western Uganda. American smuggler Hugo travels to Africa to find the source of Bulu, a mysterious narcotic with prophetic powers. In Uganda, two sisters offer to help him, each competing for his money. As they journey deeper into the forest, their uneasy alliance comes apart with horrifying consequences.
Plot
While buying kilos of hashish in India, American smuggler Hugo Winter is offered a sample of a rare herb from Uganda called Bulu, which is said to bestow the powers of prophecy. In a Bulu trance, Hugo has a shocking, mystical vision of himself in Uganda. When things go badly for him in India, Hugo flees home to his family in London. Now deep in debt to dangerous gangsters, Hugo must find a way out, fast. Acting on his prophetic vision, Hugo travels to Africa to find more of this life-changing new drug and solve his money problems. In Uganda, Hugo's Bulu visions lead him to a god-fearing farmer called Kisakye. This strong-willed young lady has unwillingly inherited the role of her late father, the village shaman, who cultivated and took Bulu to protect his village. Since the death of her father, Kisakye's ancestral land has been grabbed by the local pastor, Isaac. While Kisakye distrusts Bulu as ‘Satanic’, she needs money and agrees to work with Hugo to sell the drug abroad. However, Kisakye's sister Angela, has her own plans. She is working with a criminal gang to try and get Bulu out into the world market and sees Hugo as both an opportunity and a threat. After a close call with the criminal gang, Hugo and Kisakye travel deep into the Ugandan forest to the remote village of Makaana, where Kisakye cultivates Bulu in secret. Soon after they arrive, Hugo finds himself contending with the suspicions of the villagers and with the competing agendas of Kisakye and Angela. Kisakye is more honest, but she is uncomfortable with Hugo's wild ways and her new role as a drug dealer. Hugo earns respect in the village when he prophesies, in a Bulu vision, the drowning of a local boy and manages to save him. However, pastor Isaac becomes bitterly angry with Hugo and Kisakye, accusing them of dividing the community. Meanwhile, Angela's eagerness to close a deal with Hugo becomes increasingly appealing when he receives news from London that his family has been attacked and he must return immediately. Hugo's attempts to force Kisakye to give him her Bulu backfire and she pushes him away from the village with only a single hit of Bulu to take home. On the road home he takes the Bulu and has a vision of Kisakye being assaulted by pastor Isaac. Hugo returns to rescue Kisakye and, in the ensuing melee, the pastor is killed. During the chaos, Angela steals Kisakye's supply of Bulu and flees from the village into the forest, pursued by Hugo and Angela. When Hugo catches up with Angela, she is killed in a violent struggle. Hugo, injured and lost in the forest, takes a very large amount of Bulu in an attempt to see his way out of the situation. Instead, the overdose pushes him into the shadow world of Bulu spirits and finally reduces him to a brain-dead state of limbo. Kisakye finds his comatose body and takes the money he had saved to buy the Bulu.
Imperial Blue has received largely positive reviews, praising its direction, cinematography, locations, acting and original narrative. In Film Threat, it was noted that Imperial Blue achieved the status of an intelligent drug thriller without resorting to the use of guns and violence typical of that genre. While director Dan Moss did "an excellent job", ultimately "the film’s slow pace and unique storytelling keep Imperial Blue at the level of good as opposed to great." Shadows on the Wall's Rich Cline viewed the project as flawed in narrative: "Director Dan Moss is working with a great idea here, but the script perhaps wasn't quite ready to shoot, as it is riddled with gaps in logic." David Erdos of the International Times found the story to be in the tradition of the best dystopian science fiction: "IMPERIAL BLUE is a trip Philip K. Dick might have taken... the kind of Science Fiction that JG Ballard celebrated". Keri O'Shea describes Esteri Tebandeke's acting as "absolutely engaging" and concludes that "the film’s interweaving of location, culture, entitlement and the notion of destiny leads to a thought-provoking story". Milo Garner praised the "arresting" cinematography of Ezequiel Romero which is "adept at finding the natural beauty across all the film’s locations" and delivers a "vivid and multifarious palette".
Production
Most of the crew of Imperial Blue, at all levels of seniority, were teachers, graduates and students of Kampala Film School, which producer-writer David Cecil founded in 2011 and at which director Dan Moss lectured in 2012–16. Ugandan professionals were hired as crew wherever possible, with only 3 foreign crew were flown in. The production team offered an Apprenticeship Programme to give aspiring Ugandan film-makers a chance to practice their skills on the set of a film that was relatively well-funded compared to the average Uganda production. Imperial Blue was, in this sense, the culmination of the two British film-makers' engagement with the Ugandan film industry, and their attempts to build capacity therein through education and co-production.
