How Kunle Afolayan made “October 1” rock

Kunle Afolayan’s latest work “October 1” held so much appeal that most of the writers heading to the Ake Arts and Book Festival in Abeokuta between November 18 and 22 were pinning for the film to be screened since it was advertised in the festival programme.The Hubert Ogunde Hall of the MKO Abiola Cultural Centre […]

Kunle Afolayan’s latest work “October 1” held so much appeal that most of the writers heading to the Ake Arts and Book Festival in Abeokuta between November 18 and 22 were pinning for the film to be screened since it was advertised in the festival programme.
The Hubert Ogunde Hall of the MKO Abiola Cultural Centre was packed with eager writers and book lovers and with the dynamic director Kunle Afolayan in attendance, it was an added bonus for the audience.
Some of the international guests who have an aversion for the infamous melodrama of most Nollywood videos and had no idea of the work Kunle Afolayan has been doing were soon infected by the optimism of those around them.
With a reported N330m budget and already with three awards not to mention the tremendous buzz around the film and Kunle Afolayan’s credentials, there was little doubt it would live up to the billing.
Set in 1960, in the run-up to Nigeria’s independence, the dark, psychological thriller follows Danladi Waziri(Sadiq Daba) a police officer from Nigeria’s north investigating the serial killings of virgins in the small town of Akote in the west only to discover a dark story of abuse and anger at the heart of the murders.
The story cleverly sashays around the themes of ethnicity in the soon-to-be independent country, paedophilia and as symbolism, the violation of Nigeria by the colonial British. A brilliant movie, one that attests to the genius of Afolayan and tops his efforts in The Figurine and Phone Swap.
“The major challenge,” Kunle said, while being quizzed by festival director Lola Shoneyin after the screening, “was that this is a period piece and finding the props wasn’t easy.”
When he first got a sparse treatment of the film script by Tunde Babalola, it was the challenge of props that bothered Afolayan the most. He was however sharp enough to see the gold dust in that treatment.
“I wanted to do a small film with a small budget, but when I got the treatment, I thought this is going to be huge and I really wanted to do it.
“I started thinking of how do we get vintage cars? How do we get the colonial police uniforms and the costume for the colonial officers,” he said.
But Afolayan is known to take risks. He not only took on the script but also decided to cast little known Demola Adedoyin as Prince Aderopo (and he turns out to be quite a hit with the ladies, who, long after the screening still comment on how dashingly handsome he is) as well as in casting costume designer Deola Sagoe in the bit part role of Funmilayo Ransome Kuti. Not to mention casting Saddiq Daba, someone who hadn’t been in a major production for a decade, in the leadfor which the veterian actor w on an AFRIFF award the best actor in a featu re film.
For the props, there was a solution in Pat Nebo, who Kunle had worked with in previous films.
“I called pat Nebo and told him this is the setting and this is what we want to do and he said no problem, what we can’t find, we will make,” he said.
They were resourceful with social media and made posts about finding vintage cars. One day, driving through the streets of Lagos, Afolayan spotted a vintage car and took a photo of it.
He posted the photo online and asked if anyone knew the owner. The post was shared and within days, he was able to find the owner who was willing to lend them the car for the shoot. He would later discover that there is a circle of collectors of vintage cars in Lagos.
For the colonial hats and other paraphernalia such as the 1950s radios, televisions and shot guns, they searched on ebay and found some. But finding colonial police uniforms was a bigger challenge. No thanks to Nigeria’s terrible affair with archiving.
“We wrote to the Nigerian Police asking them for their archives and explaining what we wanted to do. We wrote several letters and every time we went back they would tell us to write another letter. After months of being tossed around, we realised that there was no archive of these things and we needed to do this ourselves,” he said.
 Fashion designer Deola Segoe of Haute Couture stepped in as the costume designer and did her magic. And with all set for the shoot they set out for location. On the way, Afolayan spotted another colonial era car loaded with goods crawling along the road.
“I asked the driver to turn round and follow that car. We caught up with them and flagged them down and we asked if they could lend us the car for a while, we will refurbish it and use it for the shoot. The car was in a really bad state but I believed we could work on it,” he said.
Afolayan’s partnership with art director Pat Nebo who produced about half the props used in the film and fashion designer Deola Segoe who made the costumes has resulted in a an impressive collection of props and costumes currently being housed at Afolayan’s Golden Effects Studios. They have plans to rent them out to other filmmakers that may want to use them.
The result of all these is a classic movie that is already grossing at the box office and like previous Afolayan movies, has generated a lot of international buzz and critical acclaim.
Afolayan is never afraid to break from the norm. Casting a virtually unknown Demola Adedoyin as the dashing but vicious and troubled Prince Aderopo was a calculated gamble. Before October 1 Adedoyin had had a role in a short feature film and the lead role in a TV series.
“Kunle has always known me and when he called and offered me this role, I didn’t think I could do it, but he said you can. We worked on it and he is a very demanding guy,” Adedoyin said.
Afolayan’s drive and enthusiasm has seen him produce one of the greatest movies to come out of Nigeria with tremendous depth and interesting subtext. October 1 is a movie you would want to watch again and again and you should, if you haven’t already.