Lionheart, a
Genevieve Nnaji film, a true Nigerian home video-styled film, has captured the
world—no mende-mende added, just same old simple Nigerian Enugu-based
Nollywood’s beautifully told story by same old Nollywood veterans – Pete
Edochie, Onyeka Onwenu, Nkem Owoh (I mean the same old Osuofia, nothing added),
Ngozi Ezeonu, Zebrudaya, Kanayo O. Kanayo and loads of the same old Nollywood faces based in
Enugu. And they made it to the international stage, in a jammed cinema hall in
the big city of Toronto, with a mixed audience, seventy-five percent whites. The
audience laughed when necessary, cried when necessary, and at the end everyone
agreed unanimously that they all thoroughly enjoyed the truly made-in-Nigeria
movie. Great sound, beautiful pictures, and of course fast paced cutting that
really did the magic. Like I said during the third screening of the film at the
Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), this is our style. Thanking
Genevieve for her audacity in sustaining our original story pattern and
presenting it just as raw as we always did before they [the oversabis] came and
told us we were doing nonsense, that the foreign markets and distributors
wouldn't touch us with a ten-mile pole. Now I can say, dear oversabis, Genevieve
Nnaji's Obiagu: Lionheart has proven
you all wrong. Connections and those she knows may have played a part in
securing her much celebrated deal with Netflix, but my joy is that it’s Nollywood
that was bought and that gives me so much joy.
Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen
Film Director/Producer
