SYNOPSIS

A high society wedding, a movie set, a beauty salon, a women’s weightlifting competition: these are a few of the many places in Uganda visited in Kimi Takesue’s lyrical feature documentary, “Where Are You Taking Me?” Employing a strikingly visual, observational style, Takesue travels through the vibrant streets of Kampala to the rural quiet of Hope North, a refuge and school for survivors of civil war. The film offers multi-faceted portraits of Ugandans and their country, exploring the the complex interplay between the observer and the observed. This cinematic journey interrogates the perspective of a cultural outsider and challenges notions of the familiar and the “exotic”. Where are we going...and what will we find? 

Structured in a series of stylized observational vignettes, WHERE ARE YOU TAKING ME? captures the rhythms of everyday life in Uganda. By focusing on the commonplace, the film counters stereotypical images of Uganda that emphasize the horrors of war, poverty, and victimization. Moving from one revealing encounter to the next, WHERE ARE YOU TAKING ME? recreates a heightened sensory experience of global travel and explores the touristic gaze and the challenges that arise in cross-cultural representation. Within the film, the question “where are you taking me?” moves beyond curiosity into a confrontation of the politics and ethics of the documentary contract.