.png)
''' '' BOKO HARAM' FILM '' ''' :
NOLLYWOOD
IN THE MOVING NIGERIAN DRAMA ''The Milkmaid,'' Aisha and Zainab are Fulani sisters taken hostage by the insurgents from Boko Haram, the extremist group that in 2014 kidnapped more than 250 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok.
With sweeping landscapes shot in Taraba State in the northeastern part of the country, the film, written and directed by Desmond Ovbiagelle, deftly tells a story both hopeful of the possibility of reconciliation and harrowing in the journey to get there.
The film is the latest entry in a growing body cinema focused on the grim toll exacted by the terrorists of Boko Haram. In addition to ''The Milk-maid,'' there's Netflix's ''The Delivery Boy''; '' Stolen Daughters : Kidnapped by Boko Haram '' on HBO and ''Daughters of Chibok,'' a documentary short that won best VR Immersive Story at the Venice Film Festival in 2019.
Each has examined the magnitude of violence the extremist faction has inflicted on northern-parts of Africa's most populous country and neighboring countries of Niger and Cameron.
When Nigeria's film regulatory board recommended that 25 minutes of footage be cut from ''The Milkmaid,'' and then curtailed showings in theaters there in the fall, the producers and directors sought to cultivate audiences in Zimbabwe and Cameroon; the drama eventually earned the prize for best film in an African language [the story is told entirely in Hausa, Fulani and Arabic] at the 2020 African Movie Academy Awards.
It was also Nigeria selection for the international feature Oscar, though the movie did not make the final cut.
Despite the censorship and truncated distribution, however, ''The Milkmaid'' and other movies in the emerging genre have found a diaspora audience abroad.
''The Milkmaid'' is authored to a certain social discourse we're seeing unfold currently,'' said Mahen Bonetti, founder of New York African Film Festival, which chose the drama as the opening selection last month for its 2021 edition.
''We're seeing a rise of extremism and religious fanaticism, particularly among youth, and witnessing the disintegration of families and bonds that one held communities together. And young filmmakers are being brave and telling these stories.
The amplification of such stories, namely those of Boko Haram's female victims, was especially important to Ovbiaglee, who also produced ''The Milkmaid'' over the course of three years.
''I felt we didn't hear enough from the victims of insurgency and who they really were,'' Ovbiagele said in an interview by phone from Lagos, Nigeria's most populous city. ''They're not always educated'' like the Chibok schoolgirls, he added, and ''most don't get international attention. But despite that, their stories deserved to be heard, too.''
In ''The Milkmaid,'' the young title character, Aisha [Anthonieta Kalunta], is captured, along with her sister Zainab [Maryam Booth], by Boko Haram insurgents who turn the women into servants - and soldier's wives - in a terrorist camp.
Aisha is able to escape but eventually returns to the settlement to find Zainab, hardened and indoctrinated with zealous devotion, now enlisting female volunteers for suicide missions.
But creating a movie in Nollywood - the nickname for Nigeria's thriving movie industry - is not without unending challenges.
However, the sometimes hackneyed movies served a purpose, explained Dr. Ikechukwu In Obiaya, who, as the director of the Nollywwod Studies Center at Pan Atlantic University in Lagos, studies movie productions.
Nollywood has always been ''a chronicler of social history,'' he said, paraphrasing the Nigerian film scholar Jonathan Haynes. Obiaya added, ''During Noillywood's early years, often something that happened one week would be depicted in a Nollywood film available at the local market the next.''
And the industry has made movies about the Boko Haram. But productions like ''The Milkmaid'' have ''shown greater creative growth in the industry as a whole and, in turn, demonstrated a greater interest from the rest of the world in Nigerian stories.
Ultimately, Ovibiagele wants to continue making the films he feels passionately about, and hopes the film will impart a lasting impression on viewers.
''I hope audiences will leave with a deeper insight into experiences and motivations of both the victims and the perpetrators of terrorist organizations and specifically the resilience and resourcefulness of the survivors.''
''The Milkmaid'' joins a growing body of African cinema about the terrorists.
The Honor and Serving of the Latest Global Operational Research on Humanity and The State Of The World, continues. The World Students Society thanks author, Adenike Olanrewaju.
With most respectful dedication to the people of Nigeria, Leaders, Students, Professors and Teachers, and then the world. See Ya all 'prepare and register' for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society : wssciw. blogspot.com and Twitter- !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :
''' History - Hyphens '''
Good Night and God Bless
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Grace A Comment!