The Nigerian director explains how his film has become a huge Netflix hit and why he doesn’t care it’s been overlooked for an Oscar
On a recent rainy Thursday afternoon, Kunle Afolayan is reminiscing about the carnivalesque nature of the Nigerian film industry in the 1980s and the travelling cinemas that brought their productions to audiences across west Africa. “It was a labour of love because the reward then wasn’t what it is now,” he says, sitting in his office at the KAP Film Academy, a creative enclave in Ikeja, Lagos. “I witnessed the days when Nigerian film-makers used to film on celluloid. I also saw how detailed they were about the production process; there used to be about 200-500 people on set for a period of two months or more.”
Already a part of the film industry by the age of 14, Afolayan is the seventh child of actor and director Adeyemi “Adelove” Afolayan, and witnessed the golden age of Nigerian cinema at first hand – before the collapse of the country’s economy in the 1990s forced an industry-wide shift to hastily shot movies distributed on cheap video CDs. Over the last decade-and-a-half, Afolayan has been part of the effort to revolutionise Nigerian film-making after decades of creative ennui, by emphasising high production standards, stories with airtight plotlines, and performances from Nollywood actors. His second movie, 2009’s supernatural thriller The Figurine: Araromire, is widely seen as the dividing line between Old Nollywood and New Nollywood, while more recent movies such as October 1 and Citation have bolstered his reputation.
Afolayan’s latest effort, Aníkúlápó, is perhaps his most daring yet. Set in the 17th-century Oyo empire, it follows a traditional textile weaver who begins an illicit affair with one of the king’s wives, before gaining power over death thanks to a gourd stolen from a mystical bird. It’s the sort of story that Afolayan has spent most of his career working his way towards.
“I’ve been working on Aníkúlápó for six years,” he says. “Originally, I wanted to make a series but I shopped it and kept telling people that this movie would be bigger than Game of Thrones. Eventually, Netflix told me to make a movie first since I believed in the project that much and if it became a success, we’d develop a series.”
