The latest sensational Nollywood rave of the moment is Obi Emelonye’s The Mirror Boy, that was seen by a mammoth crowd at the world premiere at The Empire in Leicester Square, Central London last Thursday February 24, 2011.
The best eye witness account of the event was the report of Lady C on the UK Zambians site and the best photo album of the grand occasion is on Bella Naija
The story:
“The Mirror Boy” is an enthralling journey through the picturesque terrains of The Gambia, as seen through the eyes of a London-born 12 year old boy, TIJANI.
On the 13th of June and wholly out of character, TIJANI gets involved in a street fight in which a boy is hurt. Convinced that TIJANI needs discipline, TEEMA, his mum decides to take him to the Gambia to live with her sister.
On their arrival in Banjul, TIJANI encounters what he considers to be a simple apparition- a boy smiling at him in a mirror and vanishing afterwards.
However, seeing the same boy in a crowded street market the next day sets in motion a chain of events that culminates in him getting lost.
While the panic-stricken TEEMA struggles with the Police Force to find her son in an intriguing game of survival brinkmanship, TIJANI is left alone in the company of the enigmatic MIRROR BOY who is only visible to him.
As a bruising spiritual rite of passage, the MIRROR BOY takes TIJANI on a magical journey through the dark belly of the forest.
After a series of edge-of-the-seat adventures in the forest, TIJANI emerges the next day, a bewildered boy; for whom the lines between reality and fantasy; between the physical and the spiritual have been forever blurred.
His arrival at a time of mourning for a small kingdom upsets the evil machinations of a desperate Queen who; threatened by his innocent presence; is not afraid wield her mysterious powers.
A cathartic climax helps TIJANI to unravel the mystery of the MIRROR BOY. It also provides him with a rather mystical explanation for the way his life has cascaded from the 13th of June towards this inter-twined fate with a father he has never met.
