The Man Died, the feature film inspired by Wole Soyinka’s prison notes of the same title, clinched the Best Screenplay trophy at the 35th Carthage International Film Festival, which was held November 14-21, in Tunis.
At the closing ceremony of the festival held at the Opera Theatre in the Tunis city of culture, The Man Died, written by United Kingdom-based Bode Asiyanbi, was unveiled as a winner in the feature film competition alongside 14 other entries from diverse countries.
Entries for the various competitive categories were received from about 100 countries, according to the festival’s website. The Grand Prize, called the Golden Tanit, was won by Tunisian Lotfi Achour’s feature film “The Red Path” (Les Enfants Rouges) won the Golden Tanit. The silver trophy went to ‘To an Unknown World’ by Palestinian director Mahdi Fleifel, while the bronze trophy went to ‘Demba’ by Senegalese director Mamadou Dia.
Both the director of the film, Awam Amkpa, and the lead actor, Wale Ojo were in attendance at the festival.
Founded in 1966, Carthage Film Festival (Journées cinématographiques de Carthage, or JCC), one of the oldest film festivals in the world, is renowned for attracting large casts of the best of global cinema family. It is reputed to champion the cause of African and Arab countries and enhance Global South cinema in general. Supported by the Tunisian Ministry of Culture, has, JCC is reputed as one of the oldest film festivals in the world, and certainly the oldest and most prestigious on the continent.
A total of 217 films from 21 countries were featured in the four main competitions – feature narrative films, feature documentary films, short narrative films, and short documentary films.
Though yet to be officially released to the market, The Man Died has since its “special” in July in Lagos to mark the Nobel laureate dramatist, poet, essayist, and human/civil rights activist, Soyinka’s 90th birthday, has already won two awards – Best Screenplay Award at the 2024 African International Film Festival, AFRIFF, (November) and; Best Audience Choice Award at the Eastern Nigeria International Film Festival, ENIFF.
Directed by New York-US and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates-based Awam Amkpa and produced by Lagos, Nigeria-based Femi Odugbemi for Zuri24 Media is now set to feature at yet another prestigious African film festival, Luxor International Film Festival in Egypt, January 9-16.
It will thereafter go to Jo’Burg Film Festival, SA (February); African Film Festival, New York, US (March), and FESPACO in Burkina Faso (March), among others.
It is being considered for special screenings at educational institutions in Florence, Italy; Abu Dhabi in the UAE; Jo’Burg, South Africa as well as at Harvard University, Oxford University, and Ithaca College, all in the USA, among others.
This is as it is also being reviewed by at least three major global streaming platforms and international distribution channels.
It stars a coterie of renowned names on the Nigerian screen, including Wale Ojo as Wole, Sam Dede as Yisa, Norbert Young (Prison Superintendent), Francis Onwochei(Prison Controller and Edmund Enaibe as Commissioner; and international actors, London-UK-based Christiana Oshunniyi (Laide Soyinka), and Los An-geles, USA-based Abraham Awam-Amkpa (Johnson), among others.
The film began its global tour in London in July as part of the Wole Soyinka at 90 celebrations jointly organized and hosted by the Africa Centre and the Wole Soyinka International Cultural Exchange, WSICE. It returned to London in October as part of the African Film Festival and also had an educational screening at the University of East Anglia, Norwich.
It was screened on October 11 on the ‘Accra Streamfest’ bill of the “Labone Dialogues,” hosted by New York University, NYU Accra. The film has also had a series of home runs including on October 5 at the Quramo Festival of Words, QFest 2024, Lagos; and the Lagos Book & Art Festival, LABAF on November 14.
Produced by Zuri 24 Media, The Man Died, according to the synopsis on its website, is the story of Wole Soyinka’s 27 months of incarceration by the Nigerian government in 1967 at the cusp of the civil war.
He was famously seeking a truce between Biafra and the Federal Government to allow time for a negotiated settlement of the conflict. It is fundamentally a personal account. Essentially, the subject found refuge from the brutality inflicted upon him by retreating into and living within his own mind. At times, he drifted about the frontiers of madness, hanging on to himself by a thread. At other times, he pondered, listened, and watched, like only the truly otherwise unoccupied can. Importantly, he managed to scrounge paper and a pencil from time to time and record his journey of ‘motionlessness.
The director of the film, an actor, playwright, director of stage plays, films, and curator of visual arts, Awam Amkpa is a Nigerian-American professor of drama, film, and social and cultural analysis at the New York University in New York and Abu Dhabi. Author of Theatre and Postcolonial Desires (Routledge, 2003), Awam is a director of film documentaries and curator of photographic exhibitions and film festivals.
He has also written several articles on representations in Africa and its diasporas, representations, and modernisms in theater, postcolonial theater, and Black Atlantic films.
At the closing ceremony of the festival held at the Opera Theatre in the Tunis city of culture, The Man Died, written by United Kingdom-based Bode Asiyanbi, was unveiled as a winner in the feature film competition alongside 14 other entries from diverse countries.
Entries for the various competitive categories were received from about 100 countries, according to the festival’s website. The Grand Prize, called the Golden Tanit, was won by Tunisian Lotfi Achour’s feature film “The Red Path” (Les Enfants Rouges) won the Golden Tanit. The silver trophy went to ‘To an Unknown World’ by Palestinian director Mahdi Fleifel, while the bronze trophy went to ‘Demba’ by Senegalese director Mamadou Dia.
Both the director of the film, Awam Amkpa, and the lead actor, Wale Ojo were in attendance at the festival.
Founded in 1966, Carthage Film Festival (Journées cinématographiques de Carthage, or JCC), one of the oldest film festivals in the world, is renowned for attracting large casts of the best of global cinema family. It is reputed to champion the cause of African and Arab countries and enhance Global South cinema in general. Supported by the Tunisian Ministry of Culture, has, JCC is reputed as one of the oldest film festivals in the world, and certainly the oldest and most prestigious on the continent.
A total of 217 films from 21 countries were featured in the four main competitions – feature narrative films, feature documentary films, short narrative films, and short documentary films.
Though yet to be officially released to the market, The Man Died has since its “special” in July in Lagos to mark the Nobel laureate dramatist, poet, essayist, and human/civil rights activist, Soyinka’s 90th birthday, has already won two awards – Best Screenplay Award at the 2024 African International Film Festival, AFRIFF, (November) and; Best Audience Choice Award at the Eastern Nigeria International Film Festival, ENIFF.
Directed by New York-US and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates-based Awam Amkpa and produced by Lagos, Nigeria-based Femi Odugbemi for Zuri24 Media is now set to feature at yet another prestigious African film festival, Luxor International Film Festival in Egypt, January 9-16.
It will thereafter go to Jo’Burg Film Festival, SA (February); African Film Festival, New York, US (March), and FESPACO in Burkina Faso (March), among others.
It is being considered for special screenings at educational institutions in Florence, Italy; Abu Dhabi in the UAE; Jo’Burg, South Africa as well as at Harvard University, Oxford University, and Ithaca College, all in the USA, among others.
This is as it is also being reviewed by at least three major global streaming platforms and international distribution channels.
It stars a coterie of renowned names on the Nigerian screen, including Wale Ojo as Wole, Sam Dede as Yisa, Norbert Young (Prison Superintendent), Francis Onwochei(Prison Controller and Edmund Enaibe as Commissioner; and international actors, London-UK-based Christiana Oshunniyi (Laide Soyinka), and Los An-geles, USA-based Abraham Awam-Amkpa (Johnson), among others.
The film began its global tour in London in July as part of the Wole Soyinka at 90 celebrations jointly organized and hosted by the Africa Centre and the Wole Soyinka International Cultural Exchange, WSICE. It returned to London in October as part of the African Film Festival and also had an educational screening at the University of East Anglia, Norwich.
It was screened on October 11 on the ‘Accra Streamfest’ bill of the “Labone Dialogues,” hosted by New York University, NYU Accra. The film has also had a series of home runs including on October 5 at the Quramo Festival of Words, QFest 2024, Lagos; and the Lagos Book & Art Festival, LABAF on November 14.
Produced by Zuri 24 Media, The Man Died, according to the synopsis on its website, is the story of Wole Soyinka’s 27 months of incarceration by the Nigerian government in 1967 at the cusp of the civil war.
He was famously seeking a truce between Biafra and the Federal Government to allow time for a negotiated settlement of the conflict. It is fundamentally a personal account. Essentially, the subject found refuge from the brutality inflicted upon him by retreating into and living within his own mind. At times, he drifted about the frontiers of madness, hanging on to himself by a thread. At other times, he pondered, listened, and watched, like only the truly otherwise unoccupied can. Importantly, he managed to scrounge paper and a pencil from time to time and record his journey of ‘motionlessness.
The director of the film, an actor, playwright, director of stage plays, films, and curator of visual arts, Awam Amkpa is a Nigerian-American professor of drama, film, and social and cultural analysis at the New York University in New York and Abu Dhabi. Author of Theatre and Postcolonial Desires (Routledge, 2003), Awam is a director of film documentaries and curator of photographic exhibitions and film festivals.
He has also written several articles on representations in Africa and its diasporas, representations, and modernisms in theater, postcolonial theater, and Black Atlantic films.
