'Cook Off', the story of a single mother who finds love in a cooking competition, premiered on Netflix on Monday - marking the Zimbabwean film industry's Netflix debut.
David Doyle reports.
The cooking romcom serving up Zimbabwe's Netflix debut
Zimbabwe has served up its film debut on Netflix: a romantic comedy about a single mother who finds love during a television cooking contest.
The movie's called "Cook Off" - it premiered on Monday (June 1) and it's definitely not the usual story you'd hear from Zimbabwe, which usually makes headlines due to its political crises and economic woes, including food shortages.
But producer Joe Njagu says they wanted to show that there's more to his country.
"We also fall in love, we also enjoy nice food, we also have very nice stories.
Like, we're human too." In the film Anesu, the main character, faces a difficult task and Njagu also battled against the odds.
With a production budget of just $8,000, cast and crew signed deferred contracts and studio owners and equipment hire companies were brought on board without making immediate payment.
"The cast and the crew, you know, everyone can get paid from it." The romcom was shot in 2017, in the final days of Robert Mugabe's rule, but few Zimbabweans had heard of it even as it picked up awards from several international film festivals.
All that changed when Netflix - which has 189 million paid viewers - came calling earlier this year.
"Cook Off being on Netflix, it's a big foot in the door, it's a big 'Hello, this is Zimbabwe - we're here'." Cook Off's creators are now in talks with Netflix about possible future productions.