The film, with a script 12 years in the making and shot in Canada and Nigeria, marks a triumph for Nzekwe, who like fellow black Canadian filmmakers long had his work neglected, ignored or dismissed before a Canadian industry reckoning after the murder of George Floyd finally diverted meaningful local financing to underrepresented creators.
“These stories that we thought weren’t interesting, or there was no audience, now people are gravitating towards them because we are making these stories.
“That’s when the revenge angle became more intense. I had to travel to Nigeria to get to the root of how my brother was killed. That’s when the rage I had inside, and the pain I saw on my mother’s face, led to revenge thoughts, to getting my pound of flesh, and I realized the only way to deal with that was to channel it through a film, and I poured everything into my script,” he recounted.
is also part of a new wave of indie films about immigrant life in Canada, and with universal themes for global audiences and streaming platforms, like Antony Shim’s