By BEATRICE OBWOCHA

Standard reporter

Familiarity creates boredom and you would be forgiven for taking for granted Kenya’s unique features.

However, the world is always fascinated by the Kenyan landscape and millions of tourists pay dearly to visit here.

For those who cannot afford the trip here, moviemakers have taken the trouble to bring the Kenyan experience to their living room.

Kenya has featured in famous movies such as The Tomb Raider II, Out of Africa, and White Maasai.

And the country will soon feature in a popular Reality TV show aired in France.

Besides featuring tourist destinations such as national parks and mountains, Kenya’s rich culture will also be showcased.

The Peking Express is France best-known adventure race and attracts between three to four million viewers on M6 TV.

The show is also aired by TV 5 outside France and is hosted by the country’s most popular TV personality Stephane Rotenberg.

Different narratives

The show director, Mr Gilles Coudert said they shot scenes of season seven from Lake Victoria, Iten training camp for athletes, Lake Nakuru National Park, Maasai Mara, Nairobi, and Voi.

"Kenya stands to benefit greatly because viewers will see different narratives of different communities where the participants competed. The beauty of national parks, the landscape and towns will also be shown," he told The Standard On Saturday.

The crew was in Nakuru in the second week of January. The production team literally took over a whole wing at Midlands Hotel, which they converted into a studio.

Nakuru was one of the stop points of the race. A crew from Studio 89 Production put up its shop in Nakuru and a local film company, Cinematic, assisted in shooting the show.

Coudert, however, remained guarded on the show’s participants and we were not allowed to take their photographs.

He said that would contravene the code of silence of the contract signed between the production company and the racers. We were only allowed to take pictures at the mobile studio.

"We are shooting it now and it will be followed by editing, which will take three to five months," he said.

He said episode three of the programme would have 12 episodes of two hours each.

According to Wikipedia, the show involves ten competing teams each comprising two related people either friends, married, siblings or divorced partners.

They compete in each leg of the race and the winning duo takes home Sh10 million (£100,000).

The show demonstrates how various couples deal with challenges and pitfalls of a long-distance hitchhike in a strange city. They face difficulties in trying to communicate in foreign languages.

They also take part in cultural activities in areas they visit before continuing with the race.

Those who come in last at various checkpoints along the way are eliminated from the competition.

Nakuru was one of the elimination points and the last to arrive was eliminated and had to book an early flight to France.

Local benefit

"We have signed a code of silence contract with them and they will not talk about the show until it is aired," said Coudert.

He added: "We work with a team of about 120 people and we use 18 to 20 cameras for the shooting. We visit different countries and the distance covered is between 5,000 and 10,000km," he said.

The expensive show uses about 25 vehicles, with the crew being accommodated in hotels and sometimes pay locals when they have to use local facilities.

Coudert said it takes between 45 and 60 days to shoot the whole race and they have to use local film agents in each country.

Season Seven will feature participants racing from Cairo in Egypt to Cape Town in South Africa. The director said prior to shooting, a team visits the site to map out the route to be used by the participants.

"The race takes close to one year to prepare as we also involve local film companies from the countries we will pass through," he said.

Coudert had kind words about Kenya and the locals whom he describes as friendly.

"Kenya is a beautiful country and am sure the French will see this in the programme and want to visit here," he said.

He said initially they had shot season one to six in Europe, Asia, India and North America. At first, he said they were not sure about Africa but decided to venture.

"We had concerns of security and infrastructure because we always start from a big city and finish the race in a big city," he added.