Taiwo Egunjobi is a Nigerian movie director and screenwriter.
With over a decade of expertise in Nollywood, he has carved a distinct segment for himself as one in every of Nigeria’s most compelling impartial filmmakers and artistic mavericks. His directorial credit embody A Inexperienced Fever (2023), Crushed Roses (2022), All Na Vibes (2021) and In Ibadan (2020).
Egunjobi’s newest effort is The Fireplace and The Moth, an enthralling (albeit grim) crime drama set in opposition to the backdrop of South-Western Nigeria. Written by frequent collaborator Isaac Ayodeji, the movie explores the chaos that erupts in a small college city after a uncommon Ife bronze head is stolen from a museum.
Tayo Faniran (Labake Olododo, Gangs Of Lagos), Ini Dima-Okojie (Blood Sisters), Olarotimi Fakunle (Suky, Gangs Of Lagos), William Benson (Ajoche, Unbroken) and Jimmy Jean-Louis (Quotation, Arrow, Heroes) star on this immersive flick, deciphering characters whose worlds and motivations inadvertently collide because the theft of a cultural artefact units off a series response that consumes everybody (one thing actually) in its wake.
We spoke to Egunjobi about The Fireplace and The Moth, director-writer synergy, and charting unconventional programs in Nollywood.
Please introduce your self…
Taiwo Egunjobi, Nigerian movie director and author. I grew up in Ibadan, South-Western Nigeria, and I’m nonetheless very a lot linked to the place. It’s a extremely picturesque and intellectually fascinating place to develop up in.
Describe your life in a single phrase or a sentence…
In fixed pursuit of excellence and better pondering by way of greater artwork. I like tales that get me to pause and suppose.
Why are we right here?
Nicely, in the event you imply existentially, it would most likely be a protracted dialogue. However on this case, we’re right here as a result of I made The Fireplace and The Moth, and it felt like a narrative that wanted to be informed.
Inform us what this movie is about in your individual phrases…
It’s about penalties and chaos. It’s about cultural gadgets and the way we work together with them as a society of people with totally different motivations. It’s designed like a Western or what I name the “Afro-Western”, however not the type that ties issues up neatly.
The place did this story come from?
Isaac (Ayodeji) and I’ve developed some form of mannequin for the varieties of tales we love, and so we at all times had bits and items right here and there. I had at all times been within the smuggling backdrops of the border cities of Western Nigeria, and so I had a story round that. In some unspecified time in the future, we got here up with the Ife bronze angle, which instantly took that narrative to the subsequent stage thematically. We bought into improvement with Nemsia, and we continued crafting it till it grew to become an actual factor.
How did your directorial course of differ out of your final challenge?
Nicely, I feel I really simply expanded on the instruments and gadgets I used to be already utilising from earlier movies. I had a much bigger canvas, and so I used to be capable of pay extra consideration to creating the movie visually credible. In some ways, we needed to discover the language of this factor we referred to as the “Afro Western.” I used to be additionally working with a bigger forged and wanted to handle their actions and efficiency. So not directly, perhaps it was the identical course of, however simply extra latitude.
Have been there any story blocks?
We struggled a bit with the character of Saba (performed by Faniran). We began with this concept of a chatty, charismatic girls’ man, however it simply didn’t work as we bought deeper into story improvement. I didn’t discover any peace till we finally dialled him all the way down to one thing approaching stoicism.
There was additionally the ending sequence. Many individuals anticipated one thing totally different. What we had earlier than was even far more stark however in all, I wanted us to remain very true to the legal guidelines of the story world we had constructed, therefore the concluding act in its present iteration.
Which character is closest to you and the way you see the world?
That’s a humorous query, as I got here to set coincidentally dressed like Saba, full with the suitable wardrobe and beard. Faniran even joked that I used to be embodying the character. Nevertheless, I linked extra deeply with Teriba, the Customs Officer (William Benson), as a result of I understood the thought of being one man in opposition to a whole system that doesn’t work.
A scene or a line that finest captures why you agreed to make this?
“Die na a part of this our work, na everyone go die.” Such a truthful and prophetic line concerning the journeys undertaken within the story.
How did you’re employed with Fadamama Okwong (cinematographer) to develop the visible language of the movie, notably in conveying the strain between the city’s stillness and the chaos beneath its floor?
Fadamana’s present is within the summary area. What’s not present, and that’s actually the place our conversations start. What’s our soul? What’s our language? Certain sufficient, we dug into many small-town thrillers and neo-Westerns to search out references, however the chunk of our work was accomplished once we visited places and commenced to actually discover the character of those places, in addition to what they may do for the story. We wished it to be deceptively lovely and wealthy, so we used lengthy, static pictures to create a pressure-cooker impact.
The Ife Bronze head is a central motif within the movie, because it symbolises various things to totally different characters. What was the importance of this artefact to the story, and why did you select to painting its affect on the characters?
I’ll say that the bronze itself isn’t just a cultural relic; it is usually an object of faith, however it’s plundered by many. I’m all in favour of what our interplay as a society with these objects tells us about ourselves. Is there worth for tradition and its constituents? Does the top justify the means in our ethical framework, or are there buffers? These questions hound me, and I suppose I wished to get the characters to assist me reply these questions. It’s a litmus take a look at.
Because the plot unfolds, there’s a way of chaos, desolation and bleakness that pervades your entire movie. Was this fatalism meant to be an outline of the milieu by which the story runs its course?
To an extent, sure. The movie is saying that after you, to talk poetically, “mess with the top”, you mess with destiny. You don’t get to manage what issues, and what issues is the consequence that should play out.
There’s a way of irony within the thought of a black man serving to a white smuggling kingpin to retrieve a stolen image of African cultural heritage and transport it to the West. Was {that a} deliberate artistic choice?
Sure. I’m fairly invested in seeing African outcomes that means for principally sensible causes; there’s so much to say about African participation, regardless of clear and really annoying colonial or racial overreach. How many individuals go to the museums at present?
There have been conversations round TFATM paying homage to movies like Inglourious Basterds (with explicit reference to the opening montage) and No Nation for Previous Males. What do you make of this?
Oh, I drink from the properly of the masters Tarantino, the Coen Brothers, and (Tunde) Kelani, once I can, so naturally, issues emerge both as homages, references or refined nods. No Nation For Previous Males was an essential reference in that it supplied an incredible instance of telling visible parables on this scale.
Let’s get political. How does TFATM contribute positively to black storytelling?
By refusing to carry up flattering mirrors or advance reductive heroism. It holds up a much less flattering reflection, one which perhaps invitations guilt, introspection, and uncomfortable discourse.
Between In Ibadan, A Inexperienced Fever and The Fireplace and the Moth, your movies unfold with a way of place. What motivates this, and why is it so essential to your craft?
How I see it’s that locations are destiny; behind the visible panorama is the ethical panorama. Areas are future. Areas are situational prospects. Should you’re caught at Beere (in Ibadan) by 1:00am, you would possibly discover that you’ve totally different outcomes in the event you have been caught at Banana Island (in Lagos). I’m joking, however that’s form of the purpose. Tales emerge to me together with the areas that make them attainable, not simply the surroundings, however the ethical panorama.
With Isaac Ayodeji, it’s 4 out of 4 now, a bromance of types akin to Wes (Anderson) and Owen (Wilson), or Martin (Scorsese) and (Paul) Schrader. What makes it really easy on your visions to align, and would you say there’s an abundance of this in Nollywood?
Belief. That’s all it’s. We speak every day, and most of our work is completed over random chats about every little thing movies, soccer, politics. There’s synergy while you each love cinema, while you each love tales, when there’s no ego and also you’re not combating over imaginative and prescient. That’s uncommon, not simply in Nollywood, however wherever.
You’ve been described as an auteur. How does a director together with your distinct type navigate Nollywood’s present iteration, and what would you say to encourage (African) filmmakers who determine to chart paths much less trodden?
Auteur? Excessive reward. That mentioned, one factor I learnt from working for Uncle Tunde (Kelani) is that charting your individual path is the one factor that’s value it in the long run. Make movies you’d wish to watch. Don’t chase traits, they vanish.
GETTING TO KNOW YOU
If not this, then what? If I weren’t a filmmaker, I’d be a journalist.
What’s made you unhappy, mad, & glad this week? Unhappy? The Celebration of Navy Dictators in Africa. Mad? That will be Arsenal. Glad? Straightforward reply. My daughter.
What are you watching? Succession and outdated Man Ritchie Stuff.
What are you studying? The Tragedy of Victory: On-the-spot Account of the Nigeria-Biafra Struggle within the Atlantic Theatre by Godwin Alabi-Isama.
The final movie you watched? Alex Garland’s Warfare.
The final play you noticed? Who Tiff Monalisa, created by Debola Ogunshina.
The final stay music occasion? Should have been a church live performance final yr.
What’s presently in your playlist? SB Reside and BBO, Dunsin Oyekan’s “Hagiazo” and Gasoline Lab’s “Candombe en la Ciutadella.”
What podcast are you listening to? Arsenal Imaginative and prescient and Joe Rogan.
What’s in your bucket checklist? End a screenplay that ends “properly”, and go to Japan.
The place’s your completely happy place? At dwelling with ebook and watching Baba Suwe comedy clips.
Have a good time another person … (who do you charge proper now?) Tolu Ajayi.
Have a good time your self… We made a considerate movie that ends in silence. And other people principally prefer it.
What’s subsequent? Some crime drama referred to as Bodija.
The place can we discover you? In all places however Snapchat.
The place can we watch you at work? On the motion pictures.
The Fireplace and The Moth is now streaming on Prime Video.