‘As mirrored in Movement (Japa), hope now a scarce commodity in Nigeria’

Femi Odugbemi is a Nigerian filmmaker, screenwriter, director, producer, among other titles. His recent body of work, a series titled ‘Movement (Japa) currently showing on DStv has generated various conversations since it premiered on November 1. In this interview, he speaks about the project and his projections for the industry.

Your latest project on television, ‘Movement (Japa)’ series was to mirror what realities exactly?

Movement (Japa) is all about how we must restore hope to the young people of Nigeria. Many of them have lost hope in the future. The spate of suicides by young people and so many others who want to leave the country by any means necessary should be a matter of concern to everyone. So, the series is an intense drama exploring the journey of typical Nigerian youths and the challenges of survival that forces them into making tough choices and sometimes bad decisions that trap them into criminal activity.

It is difficult enough for many to see their way out of poverty and several other challenges of daily survival, but when you add unnecessary things like police harassment and exploitation of our young people like arbitrary arrests SARS, EFCC etc, they become desperate. A desperate mind can be very dramatic. The story of ‘Japa’ is a rollercoaster ride of intensity, suspense and surprises. It premiered on November 1 on DSTV Showcase and promises to be very exciting and thought-provoking. It stars some of the very best stars of film and television from Nigeria and Ghana too.

It’s an action packed series that I think will keep the viewing audience at the edge of their seats. It will entertain them, make them laugh, make them cry but at the end as well, it will give them the emotional connections to the issues outlined. Zuri24 media is really excited to bring this story to screen following our successful previous productions of ‘Battleground’ and ‘Brethren’.

Surely, making a series will pose peculiar challenges, what did you have to overcome to make ‘Movement (Japa)’?

Every production of this magnitude is daunting. My appreciation goes to Multichoice and Africa Magic for the vision and support to realise this project, given the scale of it. Can you imagine that we actually built a set that is a full replica of the interior of a merchant ship. We had over 100 actors, day players and extras, over 45 crew members and the story took us from the inner slums of Lagos across the Atlantic to Accra, Ghana and back. We filmed from early in the day through late nights many times. We faced challenges of location permits and security issues. There were accidents and uncertainties throughout but thanks to God and kudos to our really exemplary team of cast and crew, we concluded successfully.

The quality of the production, powerful performances and intensity of the work makes me very proud to present such an exciting series that is created in Nigeria, by Nigerians and with a proudly Nigerian vibe. That said, youth emigration, human trafficking and the desperation of young Africans to escape and seek better economic opportunities abroad.

I think this subject is very important and it cut across Africa because it is the first thing we realised while preparing to make the show. It is also important to make the show as realistic as possible and in doing so, we needed to ensure that the characters and those who are playing the characters had the right level of emotional capacity to create performances that were connecting emotionally. Obviously, we also followed the story not just in Nigeria. In fact, the story travels to Ghana. It’s one of the more daunting and challenging production task, having to work low budget but having to work a story that goes beyond Nigeria and Ghana and to have performance and crew that are working in more than one country.

I think that, to me, is the most daunting part of it. We thank God that we scaled most of those difficulties. There were also episodes where we were really faced with spaces that a lot of people have never shot in and we needed to be able to access those. I am not going to give away anything but the most important thing is that the show is packed full of scenes and places that we have put in a lot to achieve. So this was a stretch for all of us at Zuri24 media.

What informed your choice of actors for the project?

Gideon Okeke and Sambasa Nzeribe are incredible actors and the intensity/power of their talent was delightful to behold. Movement (Japa) parades an incredibly strong cast of really great actors and actresses to support Gideon Okeke and Sambasa Nzeribe. Shaznay Okawa, Chioma Agwunobi, Valerie Dish, Adjetey Anang, Chris Iheuwa, Steve Ogundele, Segun Obadare-Akpata, Esi Hammond, Ibe Breakthrough and Leo Oji are some of the amazing actors who bring magic to this project too. You know this story is very intensive and very action oriented and we needed really good actors and actresses who would be able to commit time and focus to the development process of the characters of this powerful story. I am very excited to see this team come together and deliver something we all can be very proud of.

There is a scene in the trailer where a man is running and out of the blues, he is hit with a sack by another guy. It was so real. I wonder if that was captured in one take. Was it?

(Laughter) You are trying to make me give away the story? The scenes you see in the trailer are the teasers of what our viewers can expect. It’s a lot of suspense and action that is dramatic and exciting. There are also many surprises that we haven’t put in the trailer. Big scenes and unusual scenarios take the viewer on a memorable emotional journey. Every scene is true to its title – the plot, the characters are all always moving with lots of twists and turns. Everything you can possibly imagine can happen, happens within a space of days. I am very excited for the kind of suspense that every episode brings to this story.

So, asides the series, what hope do you see for Nigeria(ns)?

The youth of Nigeria are the future of Nigeria and Nigeria is lucky because we have incredibly creative, motivated and resourceful young populations who have passion to succeed. Innovation and creativity is what builds nations. I think once we fix the various infrastructural deficits of the country – i.e. electricity, bad roads etc and once we have the institutional efficiencies we need, the entrepreneurial spirit of the Nigerian youths will be clearly seen as Nigeria’s biggest blessing.

It is our human capital that will make Nigeria great and if what we are told is true, that our youth make up 60 per cent of our population, then shouldn’t their welfare be a national priority. We need to invest better in their education, their safety, their healthcare and their access to technology so that they can be truly empowered to succeed.

Hope is a scarce commodity today in Nigeria. We have to be intentional to rebuild hope in the future of the country so that they are able to keep faith with the country as it develops. We have to do more to give them ownership, and give them access so that they begin to be involved in politics, in governance, and in building institutions.

What happened with the #EndSARS demonstrations a year ago shows you what the Nigerian youth can do when they are invested. They were able to organise a seamless demonstration for days using social media and technology to organise in several locations, creating an information stream, empowering those who come, feeding them and sustaining everything that they needed to do to make the demonstrations impactful. That happened because they were invested. That little window of capacity that we saw needs to be appropriated and aggregated and unleashed in the path of growth for Nigeria.