‘Filmmakers in Nigeria?
Image: @surreal16collective in @afrikaldia
They have to be miracle workers!’ Film director, writer and producer CJ ‘Fiery’ Obasi is the master of Nigerian horror. Despite being shot on a ‘zero budget’, his debut feature ‘Ojuju’ was named Best Nigerian Film at the Africa International Film Festival, setting in motion a garlanded filmmaking career that recently including winning Best Film for his latest release, collaborative effort ‘Juju Stories’, at the prestigious Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland in August. Here the Lagos-based auteur reveals to FLYafrica the reason Nigeria is so suited to horror, why calling a woman a ‘witch’ is a compliment and the imminent release of ‘Juju Stories’ in West African cinemas.
Q
Congratulations on ‘Juju
prestigious film festivals in the world
always been at the very core of
Stories’ winning Best Film
definitely gives you the needed push
Nigerian life. Both with the young and
at the recent Locarno Film Festival
for distribution… and that’s already
old. And it was interesting to us, that
(along with nominations for six other
happening.
even in the contemporary society,
awards). What does this mean to
among young people there is still a
you and your team and what do you
Q: The three stories in the film
potent fear of the supernatural. So,
hope it will mean in terms of getting
examine elements of traditional folk-
it was only natural to explore those
a wider audience for the film?
lore and spiritual beliefs in contem-
Winning the Boccalino d’Oro
porary Lagos. How influential still
Award for Best film, awarded by inde-
are these beliefs even among your
pendent critics at the world premiere
generation?
of your film at one of the most
Spirituality and superstition have
fears in cinematic form, as it readily PREMIERE At the Spanish premiere of Juju Stories @surreal16collective in @afrikaldia
fits into our manifesto as a collective. Q: The story you wrote and directed in the trilogy, ‘Suffer the Witch’, FLYafrica 23
