A new production titled Idoani staring Nollywood actress, Bimbo Akintola, has come with the aim of preaching the gospel of African spirituality.
Producer of the flick who prefers to be addressed as simply Sango says that the movie is generally inspired by the discomfort of who we are, total absolute discomfort with who we are, our language and our spirituality as Nigerians.
“Traditionalists have almost become a taboo in Nigeria. I tell people my name is Sango and that Ifa is my religion and some will stigmatise me whereas in other parts of the world, it is the fastest growing religion. We hear that the world is civilised now. I don’t know what that means,” says Sango.
As explained by Sango who also directed the movie, Idoani, is about two children Ifafunmike (Olamisimbo Owolabi) and Folorunsho (Omowumi Adewuyi) who are grounded in African spirituality. They lost both parents in the village so they get on a bus to Lagos to search for their grandfather. The bus breaks down a few times before getting to Lagos. The children are then forced into an unplanned adventure that includes befriending a mad woman (Bimbo Akintola) and a dog, and their quest to find their way back home.
“In shooting the film, we had to go the extra mile. We trained the children to get what we want out of them. We wanted a boy and we couldn’t find one so we wound up picking a girl who could play the boy’s role. She had to de-programme everything she knew about being a woman. She had to start living in a home environment wearing boys’ clothes, hanging more with boys rather than with girls,” he added.
As a filmmaker, Sango was once based the US. He also used to run a film school in the United Kingdom with an independent studio in Central London. Among his foreign productions are the movies Quiet Storm and Niles.
