EXCLUSIVE: Damilola Orimogunje’s Dear Ajayi, the first Nigerian film to be selected for Venice’s Giornate degli Autori, has been acquired for sales by Italian outfit Luminalia.
Bimbo Akintola and Tosin Adeyemi star in the film set in 1990s Nigeria, as two estranged sisters forced to live under the same roof while caring for their paralysed mother. One sister is a dutiful and devout Christian. The other is an aspiring singer with a defiant and independent spirit.
The Nigeria-Germany coproduction is produced by Nigeria’s 2o9ine Films with Depth and Optics Productions with Germany’s Mayana Films. The producers are Orimogunje, Bose Oshin, Ajah Enene-Orimogunje, Zorana Mušikić and May Odeh.
Backers include the World Cinema Fund, Ouaga Film Lab, Nouveau Marché – Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, Montréal and Hubert Bals Fund+Europe.
“It was a good match because we were in the process of expanding our line-up with more sub-Saharan African films,” said Luminalia founder Tommaso Priante of the third African title the company has acquired this year, following Ique langa’s Mozambique drama O Profeta and Senegalese director Mamadou Dia’s dance documentary Atcha Atcha
“It’s very accessible, very joyful, very easy to watch,” he suggested.
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