Tobias Mupfuti was eight years old when he found himself homeless and living on the streets of Victoria Falls after his father had rejected him and his mother was too poor to feed or clothe him or send him to school. He survived on food handouts from tourists shopping in the Zimbabwean resort town.
A film poster showing a young boy standing in profile holding his arms up to show his muscles.
Four years later, sick of being bullied and threatened, he asked a boxing coach to teach him the sport for self-defence – a decision that changed his life for ever.
Today, Mupfuti is running the Victoria Falls Boxing Academy, training underprivileged children and sending them to school in a story that inspired the first Zimbabwean film to be considered for an Oscar.
The short film, Rise, starring the Zimbabwe-born Hollywood actor Tongayi Chirisa, is based on the story of how Mupfuti’s life changed after meeting the coach.
After learning to box, he started to train alone in the bush along the road to Victoria Falls airport in his early 20s. Several children started following him and he was offered the chance to use a classroom at Mosi-oa-Tunya high school as a boxing training facility.
He later bought his own land and built a gym to give children like him a chance – nearly 5 million children live in poverty in Zimbabwe, with 1.6 million in extreme poverty, according to Unicef.
Today, about 40 children are training for free at the academy, and eight of those children also live there. Funding comes from well-wishers and a gym where adults pay a small fee.
“The academy is helping underprivileged children to attend education, provide them with shelter and give them food,” says Mupfuti, 38.
“We try by every means so that they do not have time to go to the streets. After training, they are tired; they do their homework and sleep.
“It was not easy in the streets,” he remembers. “I thought of giving hope to those children rejected by their families.”
Rise, written and directed by Jessica J Rowlands, who grew up in Victoria Falls, portrays the story of a charismatic young boy, Rise, played by Sikhanyiso Ngwenya, who lives on a rubbish dump and convinces Tobias, a reclusive boxing coach, to teach him to fight to find safety and strength in the streets.
The film, which premiered internationally at the Tribeca film festival in New York in June 2025, has so far won 19 awards across the world. It was the first Zimbabwean film to be screened at the festival and the first to qualify to be considered for an Oscar, although it missed out on making the shortlist.
Chirisa, who plays Tobias, says spending time with Mupfuti helped him prepare for the role.
“The real-life gentleman’s story is incredible,” he says. “A selfless man, a man of humility despite the hardships and the struggles that he’s had to overcome.
“Just his humanity was a great privilege to try to portray. He is an impeccable individual, very deep, very nuanced and subtle.”
Chirisa, who played Cheetor in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, says Rise speaks to the need to nurture every child. “Rise’s character is similar to Tobias’s real-life experience. To find hope in a place of hopelessness is something that the story definitely extrapolated from,” he says.
Mupfuti was heavily involved in the making of Rise, which was shot on location in the resort town, including at the majestic Victoria Falls and in Harare. He is credited as an executive producer.
“He was pretty much involved in the entire process. He was at the set every minute of it. He is even a stunt double in the film for Chirisa. All the festivals, he has been there,” says Joe Njagu, Rise’s producer.
“His involvement has helped shape the story. For it to be as authentic as possible.”
Njagu, who also co-produced Cook Off, the first Zimbabwean film to be acquired by Netflix, says Rise adds to the efforts being made to get the Zimbabwean film industry going.
“The [sector] in Zimbabwe has been transitioning from being a film community to becoming a film industry. It’s been a long journey. What Rise has done is leapfrog to where we are trying to get with big efforts like being the first film in Zimbabwe at the Tribeca film festival,” he says.
Meanwhile, Mupfuti has plans to expand the Victoria Falls Boxing Academy to accommodate more homeless children.
“Once I finish adding 10 more rooms, I will help more underprivileged kids,” he says.
Bright Moyo met Mupfuti when he was 15 after his single mother, who works in Botswana, struggled to look after him.
“If the academy had not paid for my fees, the chances were high that I would have been into drugs. Some of my friends are into drugs,” he says.
“The academy is giving me hope. I saw myself in that young boy in the film.”
Credit: theguardian
