WOLE SOYINKA - ENI OGUN, An Accomplished Biopic on the First African Nobel Laureate of Literature
Joshua Ojo's vivid biopic, "WOLE SOYINKA - ENI OGUN"is an outstanding historical film on the phenomenal life of the most lionized African writer, Prof. Wole Soyinka, the first African winner of the highly coveted Nobel Prize for Literature.
This is the only one of the few films on the life of Soyinka to capture the essence of the spirit of the art and persona of his iconic genius in motion picture. And the first to be produced in his beloved mother tongue of the Yoruba language. The biopic produced to celebrate his 90th birthday is a must see and the film has been authorized by the Nobel laureate.
Official trailer
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1m_nA7r4CH50FjxHdNlvaixNv5F44GQI3/view?usp=drivesdk
It chronicled his trials as a fearless sociopolitical human rights activist and triumphs as an intellectual luminary of the literary world with critically acclaimed books of poetry, drama and prose for which he became famous and awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986 for with his writings, Soyinka "in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence."
The cinematic beauty of the film with outstanding portrayal of Soyinka by the award winning Nigerian actor, Lateef Adedimeji and other accomplished actors, including Jide Kosoko, Femi Branch, Segun Arinze, Dele Odule, Funky Mallam, Haffiz Oyetoro, Bimbo Oshin, Joke Muyiwa and Olaiya Igwe showed the accomplishments of the director in the art direction with the production design, casting, characterisation, cinematography and soundtracks based on the historical facts of the celebrated author with important emphasis on Ibadan and other locations of his life and the political circumstances of his imprisonment in the Kirikiri Prison for 22 months during the Nigerian-Biafran war from 1967-1970.
"This is my most challenging film production so far. Because of the historical importance and significance of the legacy of Prof. Wole Soyinka, I have to make sure of the accuracy of the sets used for the period in the history of Nigeria. KIRI-KIRI PRISON was built from the scratch in the studios. Soyinka's house was equally built with over 98 percent of the set built by the crew, except for the scenes of the roads and the other scenes shot outside Nigeria," the director said.
"I did the casting myself, because I really wanted actors to look like the real characters in his life. For the production design, I took my time as well to draw and sketch out how I wanted them to look and the guys in that department brought life to it.
I've been to Soyinka's house, so it was easy for me to recreate it."
"I had an accident two days to shoot. I was given two options: either to cut off my right leg or I do an emergency surgery, which I did. And I went back to location a week after the surgery, with an ambulance on stand by everyday. I'll shoot for 2 to 3 days and rush back to the hospital for check-up. That was how we shot for two months to complete the principal photography."
The film certainly is an outstanding achievement in filmmaking in Nollywood and African Cinema. It will attract millions of Yorubas in Nigeria and the Diaspora; especially in Brazil where hundreds of thousands of people are devotees of the Yoruba OGUN traditional religion which Soyinka has celebrated in his life and works. Millions of others who have read his popular plays, novels and essays will be anxious and curious to watch the film subtitled in English and should be widely available in other popular languages for the global distribution.
- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
The Publisher/Editor,
NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series,
The first book series on Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry.
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