Welcome to Global Breakouts, Deadline’s fortnightly strand in which we shine a spotlight on the TV shows and films killing it in their local territories. The industry is as globalized as it’s ever been, but breakout hits are emerging in pockets of the world all the time and it can be hard to keep track. That’s why we’re doing the hard work for you.
This week, we have a film from Nigeria that was shown in Cannes. Set against the backdrop of a huge cultural festival called Festac that took place in Lagos in 1976, it’s a period piece and follows on from a successful earlier movie that hit festivals and ultimately landed on Netflix. It’s exciting times for Nigerian cinema, with films at big festivals like Cannes and the government putting money behind an effort to boost the sector.
Name: ’77: The Festac Conspiracy
Country: Nigeria
Producer: Adonis Productions
Distributor: Self distributed
Where you can watch: TBC
For fans of: Authentically told African stories and fans of the previous movie, ’76, which sold to Netflix
Nigerian cinema had a moment in Cannes and part of that story was the first-ever screening of ’77: The Festac Conspiracy. The follow-up to political thriller ’76, which landed global distribution on Netflix and played at the Toronto Film Festival, it screened as part of AfroCannes, the buzzy event focused on African moviemaking and talent.
More accurately, Nigerian cinema had several moments at Cannes. Akinola Davis Jr.’s My Father’s Shadow played in competition while the country’s Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy, Hannatu Musa-Musawa, was at the Festival to unveil ambitious plans to bolster the country’s creative sector. The ’77: The Festac Conspiracy team were also on the Cote D’Azur to present their latest movie.
Izu Ojukwu directed ’76 and returned to helm ’77: The Festac Conspiracy, reuniting with Tonye Princewill and Adonijah Owiriwa who exec produce. Ojukwu and Princewill were at AfroCannes and anticipation levels are high after the first film was picked up for African pay-TV after a theatrical release. It then played on Netflix.
’76 was set after the Nigerian Civil War and followed a young army officer, Joseph Dewa, played by Ramsey Nouah, who is accused of being involved in an unsuccessful military coup. His relationship with Suzy, played by Rita Dominic, is tested by these events as well as her family’s disapproval of Joseph as a match for her.
Nouah and Dominic are back and reprise their roles in ’77: The Festac Conspiracy. The film picks up the story from ’76 and is set against the backdrop of Festac, a month-long showcase of African art and culture that took place in Lagos, Nigeria. With half a million attendees, it attracted artists from across the continent and diaspora.
The new film sees Joseph and Suzy trying to rebuild their lives after he leaves the army. “They leave the barracks in Ibadan together to start a new life together in in Lagos,” Princewill explains. “This is them trying to start over. There’s Festac coming and, as you can imagine, that touched literally everyone. So, here they are, and then there’s a conspiracy going on behind the scenes of Festac, and it’s so deep that it stretches across countries and continents.”
For ’77: The Festac Conspiracy the filmmakers mix new material with archive footage to create the desired setting and ambience. To get the automobiles of the day right – and to get cars in good enough condition that the exhausts weren’t billowing smoke – the team traveled and filmed in the Republic of Lebanon, where the required vehicles are in good condition and available.
Before ’77 There Was ‘76
Princewill reveals there is a new doc coming as part of the franchise. 76: The Story Behind The Story is directed by Adeola Osunkojo and sheds light on the real-life events that helped inspire the first film. “It’s made by a wonderful young female director who went behind the scenes. It weaves together the true story and what happened to the lives of the people that were left behind by events in ‘76.”
’76 played at the Toronto international Film Festival and then the London Film Festival. The journey to festivals, movie theaters and streaming was a long one, taking in lengthy filming in Nigeria and post-production in Munich, Germany. The film was released in 2016 having shot in 2012. Princewill says that given it was a period piece, and because the film was privately financed, there was no pressure to rush it into theaters.
“We had our own money, so we didn’t have to go to institutions or wait for a fund. We were very intentional about it,” he adds. “From a funding perspective, we were less pressured, and from a business perspective, we really wanted to get a movie out at the right time, in the right window, with the right people. This took time, and we could spare that time. The average African filmmaker doesn’t have that luxury.
“We actually spent more money than we should have because we had cast and crew in hotels for six months. Nobody has principal photography for six months in Nigeria.”
After a four-week run in Nigerian movie theaters, the film went to regional pay TV giant’s DStv Box Office store before landing on its premium movie channels. African streaming service Showmax wanted the film, but its streaming home ended up being Netflix, which took global rights to the movie, giving it a wide international reach.
Princewill and the team also applied their business smarts to distribution. Nigeria is home to many of Africa’s richest people as well as large corporates. The team arranged a host of private screenings, effectively bringing a premiere-type experience to wealthy people and organizations, recouping the equivalent of thousands of individual movie admissions each time.
The Nigerian Film Biz
Nigeria has a bustling film business and the Culture Minister was in Cannes to talk about a government growth plan dubbed ‘Destination 2030 Nigeria’ to boost the country’s cultural sector. The Minister said the plan is to deliver $100M to Nigeria’s GDP within the next five years backed by $300M of investment from the federal government.
Princewill hopes the efforts bear fruit and will be felt across the value chain of filmmaking. “As much as you put in, you’ve got to be able to follow it through,” he says. “A filmmaker can’t just make a movie. They have to take that movie and walk the globe with it. That challenge is going to have to be overcome, and maybe the funders will start to say: ‘Okay, you’ve made the product, but we recognize that there’s a need to take that and travel the globe with it’.”
Princewill’s background is engineering, business and politics but he has applied some of the skills and motivations from previous experience to his forays into film. “My co-executive producer is from an engineering background as well… so we come from a sort of ‘fixing things and business’ background, and we’ve brought that into what we think is an amazing industry in Nigeria,” he says.
“What we think was very important, was to show people like ourselves that investing in film is a good idea and ‘76 was model for that. It was an opportunity to show people that you can invest in in film and help youth unemployment, creative development, storytelling, history and it was an opportunity for us to talk about Nigeria in a positive light.”
He adds: “It was the first military thriller that you’d find in these parts, and the first movie to be selected by TIFF on merit.”
And did the numbers stack up for Princewill and the team? “We didn’t make it for the money. We made it for the message, and the money came as a byproduct of that.”
Credit: Deadline
