Why Migration Keeps Returning to Nigerian Cinema
Imagine a young man in Lagos, hands calloused from fixing generators, staring at a passport like it’s a relic. He dreams of Spain—not the beaches or the football, but a place where the lights stay […]
S16 Film Festival 2025 Reviews: ‘My Jebba Story,’ ‘Obi is a Boy,’ ‘About Sarah’ and More
Traces Of The Sun S16 Film Festival: Directors working in the ten-to-thirty-minute range for short films can fracture time, dissolve narrative causality, or abandon dialogue entirely, treating form itself as the primary subject rather than […]
‘The Serpent’s Gift’ Review: Kayode Kasum’s Latest Cultural Offering Blurs Between Authenticity and Spectacle
When Kayode Kasum released Afamefuna: An Nwa Boi Story in 2023, it sparked a cultural moment, particularly among Igbo audiences who celebrated its homage to the Igbo apprenticeship system (nwa boi), a notable concept of […]
BlackStar 2025: ‘Food For The Soul’ Review (Short Film)
BlackStar: Chisom Chieke’s short film unfolds almost uncertainly, like a painting in progress whose artist is in conflict with their muse. There is a quiet tension that simmers within Adanma (Karen Obilom) and Trey (Marcus […]
‘The Lost Days’ Review: The Very Brief Tender Beauty Of Wingonia Ikpi’s Directorial Debut
I began watching The Lost Days last Saturday inside an Uber while stuck in an infuriating traffic with a sexist driver who kept yelling curses at the female driver in front of him. The day […]
‘My Mother is a Witch’ Review: Mercy Aigbe and Efe Irele Rise to the Occasion in a Familial Negotiation of Trauma And Healing
“You’re a witch!” Imuetiyan, the film’s protagonist, blurts out during an emotionally charged argument with her mother (Mercy Aigbe). Unfazed by this accusation, her mother responds wryly that she is indeed a witch and she […]
NollywoodWeek (NOW) Film Festival 2025: ‘Out in The Darkness’ Review
In For Maria: Ebun Pataki (2020), a pediatrician tells new mother Derin, “Babies cry. It’s what they do,” when she questions her infant’s incessant tears. The cries disrupt Derin’s sleep, heighten her panic, and fray […]
NollywoodWeek 2025: ‘The Night of June 7th’ Review
The Apo Six killings of June 7, 2005, will remain a searing wound in Nigeria’s collective psyche—a brutal reminder of police impunity and judicial rot in the country. I first learned about the incident from […]
Short Film Review: Olawale Adetula’s ‘Overcomer’ is a Quiet Study of Anxiety and Identity in a Post COVID World
At the center of director Adetula’s minimalist short film is Toni (Tinovimbanashe Sibanda), an international student grappling with mounting debts and a needy mother who clearly doesn’t care about her situation. Toni’s world is a […]
‘After 30′ Review: The Plot Gets Messier for The Sisterhood in Puzzling Sequel
In many parts of the world, single women face pressure to marry, often from a young age. Cultural expectations, like a mother critiquing her teenage daughter’s cooking with, “Is this how you’ll make semo in […]