A new Zimbabwean feature film, The Phoenix, written and produced by Comfort Katriel Sachiel Mush, has placed  Wicknell Chivayo at the centre of a bold cultural project that seeks to reframe national conversations around success, responsibility and collective upliftment.

The film is not a biography of Chivayo’s life, but a symbolic reflection of his public journey and the philosophy it represents.

According to Mush , The Phoenix is a vision-driven narrative that mirrors Zimbabwe’s enduring ability to rise from hardship rather than a factual retelling of events.

“The Phoenix is not a biography of your life, it is a mirror of your path, reflected through the soul of Zimbabwe,” Mush said.

“It is a story about rising, not from comfort, but from fire.”

Mush said the film was inspired by Zimbabweans’ lived realities, where resilience is repeatedly tested by economic pressure and social uncertainty, yet hope remains intact.

He said Chivayo’s rise emerged as a central symbol because it captures both the possibilities and tensions of success in modern Zimbabwe.

“In Wicknell Chivayo’s journey, I saw audacity, belief and the refusal to accept limitation as destiny,” Mush said.

“Not because of who he is alone, but because of what his rise symbolises for the nation.”

The film centres on a recurring theme that wealth has value only when it reaches ordinary people and translates into tangible change. Mush said this belief shapes the moral core of The Phoenix, influencing its characters, conflicts and turning points.

“This film honours the belief that wealth must touch the ground,” he said.

“That success is meaningless if it does not lift others, and that a nation grows when its own people believe in themselves.”

According to Mush, The Phoenix explores how one individual’s rise can ignite hope across society, from vendors and youths to mothers, hustlers and entrepreneurs, showing how belief can spread faster than money.

“It shows how dignity restores courage and how hope becomes contagious,” he said.

The narrative speaks directly to everyday Zimbabweans navigating uncertainty, including young people struggling to find opportunity, parents concerned about their children’s futures and entrepreneurs starting with little more than faith.

“This film speaks to the young man who thinks opportunity has forgotten him, to the mother praying for her child’s future, to the entrepreneur starting with nothing,” Mush said.

“It speaks to a nation learning to trust its own hands again.”

At the heart of the film is a message rooted in national self-belief and responsibility.

“Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo. Inonamatirwa nevene vayo,” Mush said, underscoring the idea that Zimbabwe’s future must be built and sustained by its own people.

While the story is deeply Zimbabwean, Mush said it is designed to resonate beyond the country’s borders by asserting cultural ownership and narrative independence.

“This is a Zimbabwean story, told by Zimbabweans, for Zimbabweans, but powerful enough to speak to the world,” he said.

Mush said The Phoenix is not intended to praise an individual, but to provoke reflection and action at a national level.

“This film is not about praising a man,” he said.

“It is about awakening a people. It is a declaration that Zimbabwe can tell its own stories, finance its own dreams and celebrate its own champions through identity, not imitation.”

As the project gains attention, The Phoenix is positioning itself as more than a film, but as a statement on national confidence, collective responsibility and the possibility of rising together.

“The Phoenix rises so that many may rise,” Mush said.