Cinema
Living in Bondage
Chris Obi Rapu · 1992
Synopsis
Andy Okeke, who has come up from his village to Lagos, can no longer bear to see his former companions succeed while he fails. A friend introduces him to a brotherhood that promises fortune to whoever accepts the sacrifice it demands: it will be his wife, Merit. The money arrives overnight. Merit then returns in his nights, then in his days, and he ends up seeing her everywhere he goes.
Context
The film was shot in two weeks, directly on video and without going through film stock, with twelve thousand dollars, for a blank-cassette dealer in Onitsha who had an unsold import stock and wanted to fill it. The screenplay is by him and a second author, who produced; the lead role and that of the wife made stars of their two performers. A second part followed the year after, and a sequel appeared in 2019, the rights having been bought back in 2015.
Who it is for
A film in Igbo with subtitles, shot on video. The technical quality is that of the early days of Nollywood.
Prizes and reception
It is most often regarded as the founding film of Nollywood, the world's second-largest film industry by number of films, but others push that primacy back by a decade.