The Man Died, the film adaptation of Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka’s prison memoir, is set to captivate London audiences with two exclusive screenings this weekend.
The film, which chronicles Soyinka’s harrowing 27-month imprisonment during Nigeria’s civil war, according to a statement, will be showcased at the Rich Mix Theatre on October 27 as part of the Film Africa Festival 2024, followed by a screening at the University of East Anglia on October 28.
The film has been making waves in the international festival circuit since its initial premiere in July with several prominent film festivals, including Berlinale and FESPACO, considering it for their programmes.
The London screenings mark a return to the city where the film first received acclaim at the London School of Economics, drawing over 400 viewers during Soyinka’s 90th birthday celebrations.
The adaptation features a stellar cast from Nigeria’s film industry, with Wale Ojo delivering a compelling performance as Soyinka and Sam Dede portraying Yisa, the protagonist’s primary antagonist. The film’s narrative delves into Soyinka’s psychological journey during his incarceration in 1967, when he attempted to broker peace between the Nigerian government and Biafran separatists.
According to the synopsis on its website -– www.themandiedmovie.com -– the film is the story of Wole Soyinka’s 27 months 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), Amkpa is 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 theatre, postcolonial theatre, and Black Atlantic films.
The Rich Mix Theatre screening will include a Q&A session with director Amkpa, while the University of East Anglia event will feature both the director and select cast members, offering audiences unique insights into the film’s creation and its historical context.
Following its London showings, The Man Died is scheduled for several high-profile screenings in Nigeria, including appearances at the Lagos Book & Art Festival (LABAF) on November 13, the Eastern Nigeria International Film Festival (ENIFF) and the African Film Festival (AFRIFF) in November. The film has also caught the attention of prestigious institutions worldwide, with planned screenings at Harvard University, Oxford University and venues in Florence, Italy, and Abu Dhabi.
Femi Odugbemi, founder of Zuri 24 Media Lagos, producer of the film, brings his 25-year expertise in the creative industries to this powerful adaptation.
Odugbemi’s screen credits span feature films, multiple drama TV series and documentaries. He was one of the founding producers of the daily soap opera Tinsel as well as executive producer of several popular TV soap operas, including Battleground; Brethren; Movement JAPA, and Covenant, among others. Also, producer of several award-winning documentaries and feature films, Odugbemi is Co-Founder/Executive Director of the IREPRESENT International Documentary Film Festival Lagos and a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
