Nigerian feature film, Eyimofe (This is my desire), will today screen at the ongoing Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF). This year’s cinematic celebration opened both online and in theatres from September 24 and will run till October 11. In addition to film screenings, the festival will also feature talks, conferences and online performances.
A GDN Studios production, the 114 minutes film directed by the duo of Arie and Chuko Esiri, with Melissa Adeyemo as a producer, is set in Lagos, Nigeria. The two-chapter film follows the stories of Mofe (Jude Akuwudike), a factory technician, and Rosa (Temi Ami-Williams), a hairdresser, on their quest for what they believe will be a better life on foreign shores.
A passport, photos and a visa form recurring elements. The characters’ misfortunes are part of their everyday life and they are sketching out the need to leave Nigeria at the same time. At the bottom of the socio-economic ladder, status, money, gender, skin colour and family structures are inextricably connected. The longing for another life is but one thread in this complex mesh, a promise that floats above things at once near and far away.
Shot on 35mm by Arseni Khachaturan and carefully controlled, This Is My Desire also cleverly balances humanistic naturalism with grace notes of humour and conviviality.
“This Is My Desire is a low-key charmer, but it really delivers as a clear-eyed portrait of a vibrant city, informed by the unfakeable love… of two talented native sons,” said Jessica Kiang.
It would be recalled that Eyimofe, which premiered at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival in February, was recently selected for the 2020 BFI London Film Festival, which opens on October 7 and runs through October 18, 2020.
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