What happens when a court-ordered group anger management therapy session is forced to take place in a virtual space? Maimouna Jallow’s 2021 film Tales of the Accidental City turns the very limitations of virtual meetings into fodder for the creative exploration of the entrenched inequalities and harsh realities of living in Nairobi.

Tales of the Accidental City was initially written for stage but adapted for screen in response to Covid-19 restrictions on live performance. Written and directed by Maimouna Jallow, the film is based on four stories from a collection of short stories titled Humans of Nairobi. The story takes place in a Zoom meeting where Counsellor Rose, played by Wakio Mzenge, convenes a court-ordered anger management session with four victims of varied forms of injustice. Diana, played by Martina Ayoro, is new to the city and unaware of the dangers of leaving a child unattended in a place with a thriving baby-brokering business. Jacinda, played by Mercy Mutisya, is a former domestic worker whose husband cheated on her and ran away with her hard-earned money. Louis, played by Eddy Kimani, is the spokesperson of the Nairobi City Council who knocked down the mayor’s dog while fleeing from mounting pressure to explain the actions of corrupt City Council officials. While these three characters have been ordered by the court to attend the session, Sarah, played by Tana Kioko, finds herself in the meeting by accident and usurps the position of her court-ordered friend Hamida. Even though Sarah is not supposed to be there, her story of moving to the city in search of a better life epitomizes the struggles and disillusionment experienced by many with such ambitions. What ties all the stories together is anger, expressed in ways the court deemed unhealthy, hence the anger management order.

The conflict in the story emerges from stark economic inequalities as Diana, Jacinda, and Sarah—women weighed down by the daily struggle to survive—come up against Louis, a man cushioned by wealth. That all those condemned to hardship are women deepens the film’s resonance, exposing how Nairobi itself seems to press more heavily on female shoulders, making the city not just a backdrop but an active force in their suffering. Even though the drama plays out in a virtual space, the specific place from which each of the characters joins the meeting and the mise en scène reveal a lot about the character’s socioeconomic background. Sarah, for instance, joins the meeting from an obscure location on her friend’s phone with poor internet connection, limiting how much of her background is visible. Louis, on the other hand, has a stable internet connection and is able to confidently reveal his entire living room and the compound of his home.

Furthermore, the film traces the different shades of economic struggle among the female characters, offering a layered portrait of city life. Jacinda manages to save enough from her job as a maid to rent her own apartment; Diana, though not affluent, at least has a relative’s home and the hope of education for her daughter. In stark contrast, Sarah’s reality unfolds on the streets—her unplanned pregnancy, which culminated in the heartbreaking decision to give away her baby, a child she cannot keep when she can barely sustain herself. While not yet acted upon, Sarah’s anger is the most threatening as it continues to boil within, looking for an outlet. The film points to the fact that in Nairobi, Sarah is not alone; there are countless young people carrying the same unspoken fury beneath the surface. The disparity among the characters notwithstanding, Jallow cleverly weaves their individual stories to establish strong emotional connections and empathy.

Jallow succeeds in telling a powerful story about the complexities of living in Nairobi through the use of Zoom video conferencing technology. As the audience gets a standard view of a Zoom call, it creates the effect of watching a group of people in one room sharing their experiences of living in the city. Jallow uses the affordances of Zoom to make the viewing experience more engaging by showing variations in image sizes, mimicking webcam POVs with tight close-ups and medium-to-long shots. The film also exploits the quirks of Zoom, such as frozen frames or jitters, waiting room, and emojis to establish the virtual space of the action. The use of diegetic sound also enriches the experience to create a sense of being in one room even though each character is in a different space. A good example is the dance scene where all the characters, including Louis’ wife, join counsellor Rose to shake off the escalating tension and maintain calm within the group by dancing to the same music. The dance scene serves as a reminder that regardless of their differences, they are all in Nairobi (dancing to the same music) and must learn to work out their differences in nonviolent ways. Even though the filmmaker succeeds in shaping a compelling story within the confines of a Zoom call, the characters’ physical separation weakens their ability to connect, making it difficult to sustain the energy and flow of the group dynamic.

Tales of the Accidental City captures a historical moment of global significance while telling a captivating story about the socioeconomic inequalities that exist in African cities, with a focus on Nairobi. Through the individual stories of the characters, the film takes viewers on a journey into the “jungle” of Nairobi, on each turn exploring pertinent issues from child-brokerage to teenage pregnancy, corruption, police brutality, and poor city planning. As victims of injustice, all the characters have reasons to be angry, but must anger result in violence? The film is a cautionary tale pointing to the wisdom expressed by Counsellor Rose that “anger doesn’t solve anything. It destroys everything.” It admonishes us all to be courageous in demanding thoughtful action towards addressing entrenched problems of socioeconomic inequalities in our cities, if not “this city, Nairobi [or any African city for that matter], will swallow us all up.”