Comatose – starring Nigeria’s Fabian Lojede and Bimbo Akintola – has wrapped filming, after beginning in Durban, South Africa on June 13 and shifting to Lagos, Nigeria in July, then finishing the final shots again in South Africa in the first week of August.
The film boasts a Pan-African cast, which also include South Africa’s Robert Whitehead, Deborah Lettner and Mary Twala. Two heavyweights of the African Diaspora, Hollywood’s Hakeem Kae-Kazim, and France’s Aïssa Maïga, also contributed their talent to telling the thought-provoking story of what an African family would do when faced with the choice: to pull the plug or not to pull the plug?
“It’s got a bit of Afro-futurism to it and I think it’s going to be a really interesting piece,” said Kae-Kazim of Comatose. “It’s been a lot of fun, actually.”
“It was my baptism, because it was my first English-speaking movie,” Maiga reported of her experience on set.
Whitehead, characteristically charming, affirmed: “we were very, very good, I must say.”
“We have Nigerian actors here and some actors from France, and South African actors all combined in this movie. It just makes one great movie of all people combined together,” said Twala. “So, South Africans, you’re really going to enjoy it. Watch it. It’s coming with a bang.”
Comatose is being co-produced by celebrated South African director, Mickey Dube, and popular Nigerian actor, Lojede, who also stars as Segun, while Dube directs.
“It was tough producing and acting at the same time,” recalled Lojede. “We had such an amazing cast that it was worth every stress. I hope the various layers of the film will touch people on different emotional levels.”
Comatose is set to be released in the early months of 2017, across Africa and globally, where it is expected to interest activists, communities and real-life families who have been consumed by the international debate over end-of-life care.
