Cinema
Benita
Tony Muonagor · 1999
Synopsis
The title is the name of the heroine, played by an actress who was then one of the leading figures of video production, alongside a young leading man of the same generation. The details of the plot cannot be found anywhere: no entry, no copy in circulation, no review from the time gives an account of it, and the film has left only its title, its cassette cover and the names of its two performers. A second part appeared the following year under the same name.
Context
The film was shot on video in a few days, with a crew of a few people and in borrowed houses, and sold directly on cassettes in the markets of Lagos and Onitsha: a title stayed on sale for a few weeks, then disappeared from the stalls. The dialogue is in English, the country's common language, and the leading roles were played by Eucharia Anunobi Ekwu and Saint Obi, two stars of that generation. A sequel appeared under the same title. This production leaves nothing behind, and no public archive holds a copy of it.
Who it is for
A video film shot in a few days, rudimentary in its making. Its value lies in the economic phenomenon it represents rather than in its quality.
Prizes and reception
The film had a sequel, a sign that it had sold, and it has disappeared from circulation like almost all video production of those years.