TalentX Africa

Elesin Oba: The King’s Horseman is an adaptation of Wole Soyinka’s play, Death and the King’s Horseman, set in Nigeria during the colonial era (WWII). The source material is a classical play in African literature and theatre. The events of the play are said to be based on true events that occurred in Oyo in 1943. My first encounter with this play was during my undergraduate days as a literature student, and if you ask anyone that is into African literature or even the older generations, they’ve probably come across it during their secondary school days or even in the university. I can tell you for free that this play has also been performed countless times by performing theatres in different universities and private theatres. So a lot of people are not strangers to the story. Regardless, seeing it adapted for mainstream media is really a good thing for more people to experience the story. The plot summary of the movie goes like this: " The king died 30 days ago. Tonight, Elesin ...

The fact that Nigeria is endowed with great authors, directors, cinematographers, and other creative professionals cannot be denied. However, we can not help but notice that when it comes to our biggest blockbusters, the same faces appear on-screen rather often. The whole thing makes you question Nollywood auditions and the procedure that goes into them. There is really a reason for this; not to pass judgment on people who sit in the casting director's chair, but when a new screenplay is out, it's simple to assume that they would reach out to the most popular actor or actress of the time to cast.  There are two problems within this topic. The problem of recasting the same faces repeatedly without giving enough space for upcoming actors to show their stuff; and the problem of using the same actors playing the same character in blockbusters.  Considerably, popular actors would sell better. Audiences get used to seeing a particular character playing a certain role and the directo...

Nollywood is still a new and developing business. Even so, there are a number of great feats that the industry has achieved over the years. Talents such as Omotola Jalade Ekeinde, the queen of Nollywood who has more than 300 films and millions of video copies sold, prove Nigeria’s film industry dynamism. After decades of slow growth, Nollywood, one of the largest film industries in the world in terms of number of films produced, is a story of runaway success. As of 2016, the industry made up N 853.9 billion ($7.2 billion), or 1.42 percent of Nigeria’s GDP. It employs more than a million people directly or indirectly and can be considered the country’s second-biggest source of jobs after agriculture. Based on the sheer quantity and quality of films being made, economic observers consider Nollywood one of the major planks on which to diversify the Nigerian economy. However, the industry is faced with problems ranging from a lack of funding to piracy and copyright infringement to poor man...

Like other aspects of productions, fashion plays an all too important role in film. As minuscule and nonsensical as it might seem - “Is it not just shirt and a pair of jeans?”- fashion, when used properly in films, can not only transport the viewer to the time and place of the story, but can also add a level of depth to the characters. While we have a number of Nollywood productions that obviously did not give proper reverence to the fashion being used, we have some filmmakers who understood the relevance of style and utilized it appropriately in their work. The 2020 movie, “Citation” which was directed by Kunle Afolayan, is a Nollywood film that succeeded in the fashion and style department. Set in olden-day Obafemi Awolowo University, this movie used fashion to effectively capture the essence of youth and individuality, while taking a strong stand against sexual harassment on university campuses. In this Citation movie, Temi Otedola plays the leading role of Moremi Oluwa, a gifted 21...