Scotland Goes to Nollywood

(By Judith Duffy) – The Champagne Room is the first Nollywood film shot in Scotland. Tonight it is being screened in Edinburgh at the Bedlam Theatre as part of the British Film Institute’s Nollywood Nights strand of the Black Star season, which celebrates black actors. The film is directed by Olumide Fadeyibi, and was filmed on location in both Nigeria and Scotland.

The Champagne Room follows the story of a journalist and political activist seeking political asylum in Glasgow, highlighting issues around domestic violence, human trafficking, drug crimes and immigration.

Fadeyibi said he believed it was the first Nollywood film shot in Scotland – but it took longer to shoot than usual.

“It took about two-and-a-half years to get done – I had a shooting schedule but it didn’t work out because of budget constraints and most of the actors were volunteers," he said.

“A typical Nollywood film is done in about three or four days – that is because there is very little budget as well, there is nothing fancy and they just tell the story.

“The story is based on real life experiences of harassment of press freedom, child abuse, human trafficking and immigration. It is more like a docu-drama being acted out.”

The boom in Nollywood is thought to have begun in 1992 with the making of the straight-to-video film Living in Bondage, about a man who is lured into a satanic cult - which sold more than a million copies.

The industry grew rapidly thanks to unwanted VHS cassettes, which were being replaced by digital technology, providing a cheap way to distribute new releases to a wide audience.

While the early films were shot on a shoestring in a matter of days or weeks, there are now big budgets involved. On-line platforms such as Netflix are also streaming Nollywood movies.

Two other Nollywood films – The CEO and The Road to Yesterday – will be premiered in Glasgow next Sunday.

Fadeyibi, 39, began filmmaking when he arrived in Glasgow in 2008 with his wife and children. He said he was inspired by the examples of directors such as the US film director Robert Rodriguez who shot his first film El Mariachi for around $7000 - it went on to gross more than $2 million.

Fadeyibi added: “The festival is doing a great job as it is introducing a Scottish audience to African cinema. These are films that would have just stayed in Africa otherwise. People here want to see them but without this festival it wouldn’t have been possible.”

Events and screenings for the Black Star festival will take place in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee until December.

Carolyn Mills, co-ordinator of Film Hub Scotland which is part of a BFI network to broaden film audiences, said: “Black Star shows us many stories of black stardom, from cinema’s earliest trail-blazers to today’s transatlantic stars and it’s great that Scottish audiences will be able to enjoy these icons, heroes and heroines on the big screen.”

FIVE CLASSIC NOLLYWOOD FILMS

30 Days in Atlanta: A romantic comedy produced by Nigerian comedian Ayo Makun which rapidly became the highest grossing Nollywood film of all time after it premiered in 2014.

Half of a Yellow Sun: Based on a novel by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, which follows the story of two sisters during the country’s civil war in the 1960s. The film released in 2013 starred Hollywood actors Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandie Newton.

Nneka the Pretty Serpent: This 1992 film, which launched the careers of many Nollywood actors, tells the story of a mermaid disguised as a human who uses supernatural powers to hypnotise men and destroy them.

Rattlesnake: Released in 1995, this tells the story of a young boy who ends up in a world of crime after his happy childhood is suddenly shattered. It was directed by Amaka Igwe, who was one of Nigeria’s most prominent filmmakers until her death 2014.

The Meeting: A romantic comedy released in 2012 which tells the story of a corporate executive’s encounter with politics, bureaucracy and love while trying to secure a government contract.