Boon for Nollywood: Hit Netflix Thriller Examining Justice in Nigeria

On Netflix charts around the world, a Nigerian action thriller that presents a compelling tale of police brutality and corruption in the continent’s most populous nation has attracted record viewership. It serves as a reminder of the strength and promise of Nigeria’s quickly expanding film sector.

With a high ranking of No. 3 in the second week, “The Black Book” spent three weeks among the top 10 English-language titles on the platform worldwide.

According to Netflix, it received 5.6 million views in the first 48 hours of its debut on September 22 and was among the top 10 films in 69 countries by the end of the second week.

According to producer Editi Effiong, “Films are made for audiences, and the larger the audience for a film, the better the chances of your message getting out there.” The fact that we made a movie with Nigerian talent and Nigerian funding go international is the reality for us.

Since the 1990s, when it first gained notoriety with films like “Living in Bondage,” a thriller starring Kunle Afolayan’s Anikulapo that was released in 2022 and peaked at No. 1 on Netflix’s global list, Nollywood, Nigeria’s film industry, has become a worldwide phenomenon. With an average of 2,000 films released each year, it is the second-largest film industry in the world, behind India.

“The Black Book,” the newest blockbuster in Nollywood, cost $1 million to produce and was financed by a group of leaders and innovators in Nigeria’s tech sector. It is Effiong’s debut feature.

It chronicles Nigeria’s troubled past over a 40-year period, from the time when military administrations arbitrarily executed and imprisoned dissidents to the present, when police violence and abuse of authority are still pervasive.

In the first scene of the movie, corrupt police officers working for powerful politicians assist in the kidnapping of the family members of the head of the Nigerian oil regulating agency.
Unaware that the victim was the sole child of a former special agent who gave up his firearms for the pulpit, the police shoot a young man who has been falsely accused of being the kidnapping suspect in order to hide their tracks.

Richard Mofe-Damijo, a legend in Nigerian cinema, portrays the figure of ex-officer-turned-pastor Paul Edima, who in his peak was regarded as Nigeria’s “most dangerous man” due to his involvement in multiple coups and assassinations in West Africa.

READ ALSO: Charles I. Inojie – Why Nollywood actresses are richer than actors

After failing to persuade authorities that his kid is innocent, Edima is shown as a penitent father who has turned over a new leaf after being motivated by his favourite Bible verse 1 Corinthians 5:17.

In Nigeria, the problem of sluggish justice is not new. On Friday, a lot of people thought back to the terrible protests in 2020, when young Nigerians protesting police abuse were shot at and murdered. Rights organisations claim that many victims of police violence have still not received justice three years later.

Justice for his kid comes with a price for Edima. He pursues the perpetrators of his son’s murder one by one, eventually finding the army general who, ironically, was also his previous employer.

According to Effiong, who spoke to the AP, “It is a fictional story, but this is what Nigeria was.”
He thinks that Nigeria does a poor job of teaching its history in schools and letting children know how the past has shaped the present.

“Art must positively influence society, so it was our intention to use the movie we were making to reflect on this issue (of police brutality),” Effiong added.

In 2020, Effiong participated in sessions of a government-commissioned panel of investigation into the protest shootings in Lagos, the capital and largest city of Nigeria. He also offered real-time updates via his page on the social media network X, formerly known as Twitter. The movie’s pre-production had already started at the same time.

Despite the circumstances, he continued, “We must tell the truth.” “Justice is important for everyone: the people we like and the people we do not like — especially the people we do not like,” he declared.

According to some, the narrative of the film is similar to that of the American action thriller John Wick. It is an unexpectedly positive comparison that also attests to the success of the film, according to Effiong.

The film has also been praised for demonstrating the possibilities of the Nigerian and African film industries. According to a recent analysis from market intelligence company Digital TV Research, the continent’s SVOD market is anticipated to have a healthy 18 million members, up from 8 million this year.

A representative for Netflix stated that the platform’s primary focus in sub-Saharan Africa continues to be providing enjoyment through local storytelling. “Africa has great talent and world-class creatives, and we are committed to investing in African content and telling African stories of every kind,” Netflix stated in a statement.

According to Effiong, Nigeria’s film industry is at “the point right now where the world needs to take notice.”

That is because, he claimed. “The Black Book is a movie made entirely with Black people’s money—Black producers, Black actors, and Black writers.”