Photos | Wole Soyinka Hosts Private Screening of Onyeka Nwelue’s AMAAs-Nominated Film, Agwaetiti Obiụtọ

In April, we brought news of Nigerian writer and cultural entrepreneur Onyeka Nwelue’s new Igbo-language film, Agwaetiti Obiụtọ. “Agwaetiti Obiụtọ” is Igbo and means “Island of Happiness,” which is the name of the novella by Nwelue on which it is based. The film is a satire focused on four friends who are drawn from their different lives by a promise, by Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), to pay the youth in their community, Oguta, Imo State, Nigeria. Shot there in Oguta, it has since been nominated for two awards at the 2018 African Movie Academy Awards (AMAAs): Best First Feature Film by a Director and the Ousmane Sembene Award for Best Film in an African Language.

Recently, in his office in Lagos, Wole Soyinka hosted Onyeka Nwelue and his crew to a private screening of the film. Present at the screening were Peace Anyiam-Osigwe of the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA), Aboyeji Iyinoluwa of Flutterwave, Azafi Omoluabi of Paressia Publishers, Ayodele Arigbabu of DADA Books, Odinaka Jeff Nwelue of Blues & Hills Pictures, and the Chief Priestess of Oguta Lake Goddess, Akuzzor Anozia. Soyinka is said to have called the film “a magnificent work of art.”