Nicole Schafer (Writer, Director, Producer & Cinematography) “Buddha in Africa” has been many years in the making by first-time South-African director Nicole Schafer (1980). Nicole has lived in Malawi where she produced award-winning stories for Reuters pan-African magazine show Africa Journal. Nicole is the founder of Thinking Strings Media, based in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands.
In a Chinese Buddhist orphanage in Africa, the film follows the story of Enock Alu, a Malawian orphan from a rural village growing up between the contrasting worlds of his traditional African culture and the strict discipline of the Confucian, Buddhist value system of the Chinese. Against the backdrop of China’s expanding influence on the continent, the film evokes some of the tensions and uncertainties surrounding the growing relationship between China and Africa.