As an 11 year old, Ralph Compton (Nicholas Hoult) inadvertently witnesses his mother, Lauren (Miranda Richardson), committing adultery with his father's best friend John Traherne (Ian Roberts).
This single event impacts on everything that follows - the painful and public cuckolding of his father, Harry Compton (Gabriel Byrne), who not only loses his wife to his best friend, but also his position as Minister of Education with the coming of Independence.
These events prompt Harry's rapid descent into alcoholism. Now 14, Ralph returns home to discover that his father has re-married an American ex-air hostess, Ruby (Emily Watson), whom Harry has known for all of six weeks.
Initially wary of Ruby, Ralph eventually recognises that she too is an outsider in a hypocritical society. Ruby ridicules the petty snobbery of Colonial life, identifying Colonial-speak as sounding like a load of old "Wah-Wah".
Meanwhile, the community frenziedly prepares an amateur production of Camelot to impress Princess Margaret who is visiting to preside over Independence.
Ralph gets cast, falls in love and discovers a way to escape his home life.
ABOUT RICHARD E. GRANT - Writer / Director
ABOUT RICHARD E. GRANT - Writer / Director
After studying dramatic art in South Africa, Richard E. Grant went to London where he made his stage début in 1984 at the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park.
Two years later, he appeared in his first film as Withnail in Withnail and I directed by Bruce Robinson. The film brought him international recognition.
He then alternated television, theatre and films both in the UK and in the USA.
In 1992, Robert Altman cast him in the Hollywood satire The Player. In 1993, another great American director, Martin Scorsese cast Grant in The Age of Innocence.
He then returned to the stage as Algernon Moncrieff in a revival of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest.
He went on to become an Altman regular, appearing in Prét-é-Porter in 1994 and Gosford Park in 2001.
In 1996, Grant published his film diaries - With Nails.
He also appeared in Jane Campion's acclaimed The Portrait of a Lady alongside Nicole Kidman and John Malkovich.
In 1997, he co-starred with Helen Bonham-Carter in Keep the Aspidistra Flying. The following year he played the manager of the Spice Girls in Spice World and wrote his first novel, By Design. Wah-Wah is Richard E. Grant's first film as director and screen-writer.
DIRECTOR'S COMMENTS
"This was a genuine labour of love - I had never written or directed a film before, and likewise, it was the first film ever made in the Kingdom of Swaziland. I was personally given permission by King Mswati III to film in the country.
The opportunity to re-visit and re-create your past, albeit in fictionalised form, in the actual locations where it all happened is something that imparted a tangible authenticity to the experience which profoundly informed and affected the actors.
A film also requires a bucket load of luck and we certainly had that - perfect weather, government co-operation, great chemistry amongst the cast and a real willingness to recreate and explore the lives of people living out their days in the last gasp of the Empire.
I loved being asked two thousand questions a day about anything and everything. Without a doubt, it has been the most intense and creative experience of my life." - Richard E. Grant, Writer/Director
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