AWARDS

WINNER

Audience Award, London Breeze Film Festival

Jury Award for Documentary, La Femme Independent Film Festival

Audience Award (Documentary), La Femme Independent Film Festival

NOMINATED

Best Documentary, London Breeze Film Festival

 

Meet the Collaborators

Johan Nayar

Johan Nayar

Director

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Tim Delhaes

Producer

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Mukwae Wabei

Executive Producer

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Neil Nayar

Band Manager

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Isaac Mafuel

Writer & Translator

David

David Zannoni

Advisor and Right Management

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Yuri Dekovic

Collaborator and Designer

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Alberto Contreras

Collaborator and Art Director

Listen to the band

The Journey home after the Euro Tour (Part 1)

The last few weeks of the tour were surely like the last few miles of a marathon. By the end we had played 53 concerts in 10 weeks and on the last day we actually had an afternoon and an evening concert. 

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Madalitso Team: Neil Nayar, The Accidental Manager

It was 2015 and I’d been running an acoustic music night in Lilongwe after arriving in the city from London two years earlier on a one way ticket, with my guitar, but no money. 

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USA 2022 Tour Cancelled

It was when we performed at HIFA in Zimbabwe back in 2018 that the idea to do a tour of the USA first came to us.

Read more
What would you like to tell us about

About The banjo boys

The Story

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Yobu Maligwa and Yosefe Kalekeni had been dragging their bulky, handmade instruments through the hot streets of Lilongwe for ten years when they met Neil.
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The fellow street musician, a broke backpacker from the UK, who was combing the capital of Malawi for gigs, was as fascinated by the the duo’s instruments as much as their music.
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The instruments were built from listening since their childhood to the tunes of Pamela Nkhuta and Billy Kaunda on the radio, without actually ever seeing the real instruments, let alone being able to afford them.
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Little did they know that a casual parking lot encounter would catapult them on a journey of thousands of miles through the African continent and later overseas to the global stages of Roskilde and Womad.

The Story of Madalitso Band

When two Malawian street performers encounter a British travelling musician, an opportunity arises that takes them on a journey from the dusty streets of Malawi to the stages of Zanzibar, Europe and the US—confronting the harsh realities of life as artists and embracing the transformative power of music.

About The Film

The Banjo Boys follows the rise of Madalitso Band—Yobu Maligwa and Yosefe Kalekeni—Malawian musicians who built their own instruments: a banjo, a one-stringed babatone, and a foot drum. Once dismissed as madmen for their relentless street performances in Lilongwe, they catch the ear of Neil Nayar, a British musician captivated by Malawi's vibrant soul.

What begins as a chance meeting ignites an unlikely trio, catapulting them from local streets to the world's biggest stages—Sauti za Busara in Zanzibar, WOMAD in the UK, and Joshua Tree in California.

Through intimate interviews, electrifying performances, and candid moments of doubt and triumph, The Banjo Boys celebrates music's ability to uplift, unite, and rewrite destinies against all odds.

Runtime: 76 minutes
Languages: English
Completion Date: March 2025

From the Director

I first saw Yobu and Yosefe playing a concert in Lyon in 2017, and I was instantly drawn in. Their music had this raw, hypnotic energy, something instinctive that made people stop, listen, and move. Two years later, at WOMAD, I filmed them for the first time, watching how their rhythms pulled in a crowd, turning passersby into fans. That's when I knew there was a story here—one about music, resilience, and the kind of talent that refuses to be ignored.

This film is personal for me in ways I didn't expect. In my twenties, I played in electro-rock bands and even busked on the streets of Oxford. My brother Neil and I were in a band together called The Dharma Bums, but creative differences pulled us in separate directions—Neil to Malawi, where he built a life, and me to Bournemouth, where I refocused on filmmaking. That history made it even more meaningful when I met Yobu and Yosefe, two Malawian buskers now making their way onto the world stage.

What struck me most was their discipline. Most musicians in their position would have been drawn to the party lifestyle, but they were different. Given the choice, they'd rather rewatch Kung Fu Panda in their hotel room than go out drinking. Their commitment to their craft was unwavering. And the more I uncovered about their journey, the more I fell in love with the story and with Malawi itself—a country I now see as a hidden gem.

My background is in music and fiction filmmaking, and I wanted The Banjo Boys to have the energy and dynamism of a feature film. I structured the story with a strong narrative arc, highlighting the emotional highs and lows: Yobu's double life as a pastor, Rice leaving the band for school only to end up in prison for murder, and the incredible moment when Yobu and Yosefe returned to their home village—locals had thought their success was a myth until they arrived with the film crew, making their legend real.

More than anything, this film is about the power of music to transcend borders, to defy expectations, and to turn dreams into reality. This isn't just a documentary—it's a celebration of the magic that happens when music meets destiny.

— Johan Nayar

The Team

Neil (the accidental band manager) and Tim (a nomadic tech entrepreneur) coincidentally bumped into each other in Liwonde national park in September 2021 where their families had become friends. After enjoying some time and beer together, they decided together with Johan (Neil's brother and passionate film maker), to restart the production of a documentary project Johan had initiated the year before. They managed to secure a small grant from the Near Foundation and infect others on the way: Alberto, Yuri, Emmanuel, and Satesh.