Abstract
Nollywood legend
Kunle Afolayan directs a scene from his 2014 film October 1 at a rural location in southwest Nigeria
CREDIT: Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters
Afolayan told Index that this was deliberate. “I did that film to see how possible it is to break into the continent, which was why I picked those actors from the north, east, west and south of Africa,” he said. “Even if we are not breaking into Europe and America yet, we need to conquer Africa.”
He added: “The problem is the cinema structure. South Africa is the country with the largest number of cinemas, now followed by Nigeria. All the other countries have very limited screens.”
He says that Nollywood films are popular in other African countries, but audiences often consume them through pirated DVDs and therefore are not creating income for filmmakers. Though The CEO attracted international and corporate backing, it failed to secure distribution in South Africa because it was still believed that Nigerian films do not do well at the box office.
Over the past decade, the Nigerian film industry has experienced renewed energy, becoming the second largest film industry in the world according to the British Council in 2015.
It is widely considered a billion-dollar business. Afolayan, who once worked in banking, has over five feature films under his belt and has become a key figure in the renaissance of Nigerian cinema. Though an unlikely prerequisite to a career as a successful director, Afolayan’s background in communications and corporate affairs seems to have worked in his favour. The unlimited access to press and advertising agencies meant that he had the engine to raise funds and the ingredients to get his work to consumers.
“I used all of the experience that I had gathered to set up a corporate organisation with the aim and intention of creativity,” he said. As a result, his work has been lauded for its high production values and has become well known for the media frenzy that accompanies the release of his films. Whether it’s a period film like his 2014 movie October 1 or the earlier romantic comedy Phone Swap, he is usually touted as box office gold.
Film, he believes, speaks a global language, so travelling to festivals across the world has been an opportunity for other nationalities to experience Nigerian culture through films that go beyond the often pessimistic and lopsided news coverage that has become the overarching narrative about Africa.
“I try to come up with stories that both Africans and people in other parts of the world can relate to. Even if they don’t understand it, they are either learning or they are getting entertained,” he said.
Afolayan claims that Hollywood is a system that puts its money where its mouth is as a purely commercial industry, which makes it an often-unfair comparison. With more investment injected into the Nigerian film industry and consequently an increase in cinemas, there is an opportunity for scaling up and going global.
“Wherever you are placing the films, some might say the numbers you are quoting are not good enough for them, some might say those figures only cover 1% of their projection, but at least we are beginning to have that,” he said. “For them it isn’t just about the content.”
He explains that the reason why a Hollywood movie will star Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt is because they are hugely well-known all over the globe and they bring people into cinemas. Sales projections and accountability, he emphasises, is a key component to expanding Nollywood voices overseas.
Hollywood blockbusters often experience more box office success in Nigerian cinemas than Nigerian films and Afolayan tells me he recently queried the nine slots given to the movie Fast and Furious at a local cinema, a slot number which no Nigerian film had ever been offered. However, he was met with the same response regarding profit and numbers.
It is almost impossible to miss that Afolayan is as interested in the numbers game as he is in the art of filmmaking. Does this game of numbers affect artistic expression? The quest for global expansion might mean he has to compromise on artistry and content or even pander to what international distributors consider African or Nigerian. But Afolayan muses that it is up to filmmakers to make up their minds on how they want to be perceived in the international market and what kinds of films they want to make.
“I want to be known as a film director who is versatile, who can fit into different genres and that is where I place myself,” he said.
When the conversation turns towards Francophone Africa, I bring up the success of the Oscar-nominated Timbuktu by Abderhamman Sisako and Rashid Boucherab’s London River starring the late Burkinabe icon Sotigui Kouyate.
As popular as Nollywood is, its absence never goes unnoticed at the Pan-African film and television festival (Fespaco) in Burkina Faso, which still serves as Africa’s biggest film festival.
He said: “Francophone films have always gotten huge backing from France, Belgium and Germany. Europe has major control over their content.”
He added: “The indigenous films actually don’t get seen by the people. They are usually made for festivals. The average person does not enjoy those films because they are slow and have a very European aesthetic.”
Afolayan believes that Nollywood needs to concentrate on what it has by serving its existing audience, and as long as filmmakers are able to make a living out of their craft and the stories they want to tell, then they need to stick with it.
“Instead of dreaming [that], I want to break into Hollywood and you try to do that for 20 years and you keep hoping and dancing to the tune of these people who tell you this is how your story should be told, then I will settle for the first option,” he said.
Afolayan acknowledges that thanks to video-on-demand services, filmmakers have access to international audiences more now and are getting their voices heard on their own terms.
Nollywood is a testament to that quintessential Nigerian hustle and resilience. Afolayan applauds Nigerian tenacity in an industry created and built by artists themselves.
“I think Nigeria is really trying, because it is one thing to have great ideas and it’s another thing to wait for five to 10 years to execute it because you are waiting for some grant from somewhere. We are not doing badly,” he said.