Akin Omotoso, South Africa-based filmmaker was in Lagos recently for the African Film International Festival, AFRIF, where his new feature film, Man on Ground, was screened. The film chronicles life in South Africa, the state of migration on the continent and other cultural issues.

Start a discussion with him and two things become crystal clear about this middle-aged man. Akin Omotoso, Nigeria-born but South Africa-based filmmaker, is passionate about his profession. He sees it as a standard platform for correcting the erroneous impression that Africa is cavernous. As a victim of the xenophobic attacks in the former apartheid enclave, coupled with his bi-continental heritage, Omotoso understands the risks associated with travelling around the continent. A cumulation of his experiences and the publicised danger associated with migration nudged him to make Man on Ground, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in Canada last year.
Starring Akeem Kae-Kazeem, Fabian Adeoye Lojede, Fana Mokoena and Makhaola among others, the story revolves around two Nigerian half-brothers, Femi and Ade. Ade has a good job in London but is in South Africa on a short visit. Femi ekes a living working at construction sites in the dingy part of the city, where government’s promise of free housing is not fulfilled. Rather, the houses are sold to foreigners. The two siblings are estranged, though the reason for this is shrouded in secrecy. Hence, when Femi is suspected to have run into trouble after a fracas, it takes his fiancée to persuade Ade to go and look for him. Remarkably, Ade traces the cause of his complex relationship with his brother to petty childhood jealousies. Soon the people, mostly natives living in squalid conditions, begin to complain. Through Femi’s voiced-over letter, he reports of disparities in the standard of living between the social groups. As the movie climaxes, there is a sporadic outbreak of riots, houses are set alight and people killed in the process.

The cinematographer, who has other successful flicks to his resume, said the idea of Man on Ground “came from the 2008 riots in South Africa, the xenophobic riots. A picture came to symbolise these riots. It was of a man called Ernesto Nhamuavhe, who was burnt alive… There were policemen laughing at him while he was being burnt”.{:::photo:::}The film has been screened in South Africa, where it was shot, and in Nigeria and Dubai to impressive reviews from critics. It is not difficult to figure the issues captured in the sassy film. The writer and director of the feature film explains that he set out to “make a movie that says something about the state of migration and xenophobia in Africa, hence the story is a contribution to the ongoing debate about what kind of continent we want.”

Omotoso told TheNEWS that his creative gene was watered by his writer and academic father, Professor Kole Omotoso and his urban planner Barbadian mother. Growing up in the company of writers and in the midst of books was particularly instructive, he said. Though not a book writer himself, Akin has brought his creative talent to bear on films like God is African, a cinematographic account of the murder of renown environmental rights activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa by the General Sani Abacha regime in 1995. A few years ago, he did Soyinka: Child of the Forest, a film based on the life and activism of Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka. According to Omotoso, he chose film as a medium of communication because “Films, like books, travel. We showed this film (Man on Ground) in September in Toronto, I am now leaving Lagos having shown it. I will go to Dubai to show it. We are reaching people when we release it in as many African countries as possible and internationally.”

Unlike some Nigerians in diaspora, Omotoso does not find fault with Nollywood, Nigeria’s movie industry. He rates the industry highly, comparing the technological advancement and indeed some films made in Nigeria to those made elsewhere in the globe. Seeing movies screened at the AFRIF and the success recorded with cinema raves like Tango with Me and Inale, he submits that “Technologically, the same equipment in South Africa are the same we have here. I don’t think that that is so much an issue anymore, if it ever was. Not for me.” He points out that Nollywood does not breach any known practice by the level of technical or technological quality of their films. He told TheNEWS that he has “never looked at whether Nollywood films are technologically done or technical in what they are because that is the medium. If someone like Lars Von Triers in Europe does a film with no light and no sound, everybody says ‘that is avant garde’.” He wondered why the reception of Nollywood movies has been suspicious despite the prevalence of similar production quality across the world.

In spite of his praise for Nigerian filmmakers, Omotoso opines that practitioners have to find alternative sources of funding, since government is not interested in the sector. He advises movie makers not to wait until they amass huge financial war-chests before producing films. Through alternatives like “crowd funding”, he says, appeals are made to interested members of the public to donate small sums of money towards the accomplishment of film projects.

Besides directing and producing, Omotoso has had a varied career in the movie world, as an actor and designer. His notable film credits as an actor include the blockbuster Blood Diamond, Shake Hands with the Devil, Lord of War, Operation Delta Force5, Double Shift and many more.

















culled from http://thenewsafrica.com