‘I’ve a reputation for telling hard-hitting stories’

Kenneth Gyang is a filmmaker known for the award-winning ‘Confusion Na Wa’, ‘The Lost Café’, ‘Blood and Henna, and currently ‘Oloture’ a Netflix original movie which is topping ratings across the world. Here, he talks about making the movie, what attracted him to the script, and more. Excerpts:   W eekend Magazine: What was your […]

Kenneth Gyang is a filmmaker known for the award-winning ‘Confusion Na Wa’, ‘The Lost Café’, ‘Blood and Henna, and currently ‘Oloture’ a Netflix original movie which is topping ratings across the world. Here, he talks about making the movie, what attracted him to the script, and more. Excerpts:

 

W

eekend Magazine: What was your first reaction when you read the ‘Olutore’ movie script and what particularly intrigued you?

Kenneth Gyang: It was the rawness of the story’s tone that appealed to me because before then, I was nursing the idea of telling a trafficking story myself.

Every year, thousands of young people from sub-Saharan Africa set off across the desert dreaming of a better life in Europe. Many fall prey to ruthless smugglers or find themselves stranded in a foreign country without the means to continue or return home.

In 2008, I was shocked by a three-part BBC radio documentary called ‘Desperate Dreams’ about a Nigerian girl who left her home in Southern Nigeria to go to Europe because she was promised a job. The young girl ended up in Agadez in Niger Republic, sleeping with about fourteen different men a day to make enough money to head to Libya. A couple of years, in 2016, we had a project about migrants’ journey on the ‘road to hell’ developed by Olabode Moses which we pitched at the Ouaga Film Lab in Burkina Faso and won the EAVE Producers Workshop prize for a one-year development workshop in Europe in 2017.

 

WM: How did the collaboration with Mo Abudu come into fusion?

Gyang: For years I have collaborated with Ms Mo Abudu’s Ebonylife Media. From the hugely successful Northern-based series called ‘Sons of the Caliphate’ to Nigeria’s first law drama ‘Castle & Castle’.

I got a call from their company that they have the right kind of script for me because they know the sort of stories I always love to tell. In Nigeria, I have built a strong reputation for telling hard-hitting prestige stories.

 

WM: At what point did Netflix come into the future and how did the movie succeed in becoming a Netflix original? What did it take?

Gyang: The film became a Netflix Original as a result of its compelling universal story and great interpretation of a brilliant script from the production team. Great cast and technical excellence as well.

As per the film getting to be part of Netflix that should be down to Ms Mo Abudu but the conversation must have happened after the film had its premiere at the 2019 Carthage Film Festival in Tunisia which is the oldest and biggest film festival in Africa and the Arab world.

 

WM: What did it take to bring out what was on paper to the screen?

Gyang: It was a lot of hard mental work achieving this and the result is down to my collaboration with the Director of Photography, Malcolm McClean, and the Production Designer. We created a totally believable universe.

 

WM: Did you have a say on who made the cast? What influenced the choice of the main character and how challenging was it making that selection?

 

Gyang: Of course, I was part of those having a say regarding the cast. I love being part of every creative decision-making when I make a film.

My approach to this film is to reveal life through the lenses of young women who wish to escape all the ills associated with developing countries. In humanizing these characters, I want to make them relatable. The choice of the main character for me was about finding a young lady that can come across as naïve in the beginning of the film because at first, Oloture’s character thought going undercover was something fun until a key event happened to her which influenced her to make it a personal mission.

 

WM: Trafficking of women for the purpose of prostitution has been a daunting challenge in Nigeria. What kind of support did you get from organisations who work against such crimes?

Gyang: Indeed, every year, thousands of young women are trafficked from Nigeria and organisations like Naptip are at the forefront of fighting against it. For Oloture, we had a lot of support from that agency. They helped with research and we also shot around the exterior of their office. The vehicles you saw in the film also came from them.

 

WM: What informed the particular genre of Nigerian songs that played almost throughout the movie?

Gyang: One key component of a Kenneth Gyang film is music. For Oloture, I wanted to bring alive the exotic city of Lagos in this film about friendship and soul searching whilst paying tribute to the masters of Nigeria’s yesteryears in reference to music.

Growing up, I used to pass around local pubs and you hear great West African highlife and soukous from Congo. I didn’t know what was going on in those pubs but I knew that the music was great and that was the memory I showcased with my selection of the songs.

 

WM: What major challenges did you face making Olutore and how did you overcome them?

Gyang: The major thing was how to film the border scene because we had toyed with the idea of filming at a real border. It was tough figuring out what to do because I knew it was going to be total chaos at a real border. In the end we set up everything from scratch at the Eko Atlantic City.

 

WM: There is an oath taking, initiation scene in the film. What did it take to get it right?

Again, it took a lot of conversation with the ladies involved to get them in the right frame of mind as well as in-depth research.

 

WM: How successful would you say the movie has been so far?

Gyang: Released worldwide on Netflix on October 2, 2020, Oloture swiftly became one of the most successful crossover Nigerian titles on the service, creating a buzz and conversation amongst audiences in Africa, Europe, the Americas and the Middle East, to name a few.

At some point it was number seven worldwide on the planet’s biggest streaming platform. We were on the top of lists in countries like Brazil, France, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Kenya and Oman. We were in the top 10 of about 28 countries.

 

WM: You’re yet to make a film adaptation of any Nigerian novel. Are there plans in that direction?

Gyang: Yes, I have been discussing the possibility of making that happen. Everything is down to funding.

 

WM: What’s the next big thing for you now?

Gyang: I’m currently working on a biopic based on a historical figure in Nigeria. There’s also a personal indie film called ‘Chronicles of Ember’ which I am currently developing as well as ‘El Dorado Road’.