Organisers of the Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF) has announced Nollywood film ‘Orah’ as its opening night movie for the 12th edition of the festival slated to hold from November 5 to November 11 in Lagos.

Chioma Ude, Founder & Festival Director for AFRIFF, disclosed this in a statement on Friday, in Lagos.

Ude noted that this was a bold step to drive home this year’s festival theme “Indigenous 2.0 Global” before the participating Nigerian and international movie enthusiasts who would grace the festival’s annual opening gala night.

Ude said: “Filmmaking is evolving rapidly in Africa with Nigeria at the forefront of the renaissance.

“And this year’s edition is designed to continue to reiterate the opportunities for African films and storytelling to reflect global perspectives for the sustained success of more local films globally.

“We intend to continue to empower our storytellers to explore ideologies and techniques that connect with the larger global audience.

“ORAH is positioned as the opening night movie to drive this expectation.”

Orah, written and directed by acclaimed Nigerian-Canadian filmmaker Lonzo Nzekwe (Anchor Baby), is produced by Nzekwe, Floyd Kane (Diggstown) and Amos Adetuyi (The Boathouse).

The film was shot in Canada and Nigeria in 2022.

A character-driven crime thriller, Orah showcased the story of a female taxi driver in Toronto embarking on a revenge tour to avenge the death of her son who was brutally murdered by a high-profile Nigerian criminal in a drug trafficking operation.

Nzekwe described how the movie became a revenge movie drama when in real life, his brother was murdered in 2016, by a stray bullet fired by a corrupt police officer with the notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Nigeria.

“That’s when the revenge angle became more intense. I had to travel to Nigeria to get to the root of how my brother was killed.

“That’s when the rage I had inside, and the pain I saw on my mother’s face led to revenge thoughts, to getting my pound of flesh, and I realised the only way to deal with that was to channel it through a film, and I poured everything into my script,” Nzekwe said.

(NAN)