An account of treatments meted out on the LGBTQ people in Nigeria has been highlighted in a new film by ace media practitioner, Funmi Iyanda.
Entitled “Walking with Shadows”, the film which was premiered at the 2019 BFI film festival in London, follows the story of Adrian Ebele Njoko, a married executive whose hidden gay sexuality is exposed by a disgruntled colleague, shattering his family and opening hidden wounds.
The British-Nigerian co-production adapted from author Jude Dibia’s 2005 debut book of the same name, chronicles one man’s struggle for acceptance by his family and society following revelations of a past gay relationship.
A story of the fallout from a romantic relationship between two Nigerian men remains a controversial topic in Nigeria.
The critically-acclaimed book, initially self-published after Dibia failed to find someone willing to release it, was the first Nigerian novel to feature a gay protagonist.
Since the signing into law of the SSMP Act in Nigeria in January 2014, there have been reports of arbitrary arrest of individuals suspected of being gay. By 15 January 2014, only seven days after the enactment of the legislation, more than 10 people from across Nigeria were, according to Amnesty International, arrested based on their real or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity.
Set in the metropolitan city of Lagos, “Walking With Shadows”, is yet to receive approval from Nigeria’s authorities. Last year, a similar Kenyan film, “Rafiki” was outlawed by the country, but was screened at the Cannes Film Festival.
“Walking With Shadows” tells the story of protagonist Ebele Njoko, who has remade himself as a successful and respected father and husband named Adrian after abandoning a gay relationship earlier in his life.
When the affair is newly exposed, he chooses not to deny it to his wife and others in the face of growing hostility, and his fragile life soon begins to crumble.
Iyanda who is Creative Director and Producer of the film noted in a press statement that the project opened her eye to the “depth of homophobia and the heightened levels of social intolerance”.
Iyanda whose TV interview with Bisi Alimi, an openly gay Nigerian rights activist, caused a storm stated: “I wanted to find the right story to tell about struggles with one’s self and society’s expectations in a country which was incredibly vibrant yet deeply and punitively conservative.”
She had picked interest in Dibia’s book in 2015 and began filming two years later, but struggled throughout to find those willing to fund a movie about such a topic.
For London-based Irish writer and director Aoife O’Kelly, the film is her feature-length directorial debut. She said she was naturally drawn to it following her experience in Ireland, where homosexuality was illegal until 1993.
She told AFP: “I was very empathetic towards the story… the devastation the Irish law caused many people who were forced to hide their sexuality and persistently faced arrest or ostracisation.”