Uche JomboThrills Movie Buffs with ‘Heaven on My Mind’
From Uche Jombo’s debut movie appearance in ‘Visa to Hell’ in 1999 to her first directorial attempt with Heaven on My Mind, both movies incidentally have ethereal themes, writes Ferdinand Ekechukwu
It’s ‘Heaven on My Mind’, another family movie from Uche Jombo productions in conjunction with Minini Empire Productions, owned by Ini Edo. The collaborative effort by the two Nollywood divas (Uche Jombo Rodriguez and Ini Edo) comes handy in some way that both combined forces to produce a movie, with Mercy Aigbe as the poster girl, playing the role of Mrs. Peters.
The film parades a mixed cast of popular Nollywood faces from the English and Yoruba Nollywood genres, including Eric Ogbonna, Adunni Ade, Andrea Chika Chukwu, Ray Emordi, Yvonne Nwosu, and Femi Adebayo.
The movie which has just secured a release date, began pre-production in late 2017 and finished filming in March 2018. To Uche Jombo, the movie is really a breath of fresh air when it comes to storytelling, production and casting. The story, production, cast and crew members brought their A-game to the table. It is refreshingly different. On this being her directorial debut, the Mathematician and Statistician turned actress/movie maker said, “I mean we all get to a point in life when you just know that it is time to do something you really enjoy and take it to the next level.
“For me, directing this movie is a huge market in my books and I really appreciate everyone who had faith in me. Not only did I get to act with some of the most talented actors in the industry, I also got a chance to bring out the best in them through the lens. It was an amazing experience.”
This is the first time the Nollywood actresses would jointly put together material and resources to make a movie as executive directors. Whether the movie meets expectation would be another thing when it finally hits the cinemas pretty soon.
From her debut movie appearance in Visa to Hell in 1999 to now her first directorial attempt with Heaven on My Mind, which has been set for release December 2018, both movies incidentally have ethereal themes, hence the religious toga on the latter from different quarters following the trailer release. But the lead producer Uche Jombo had contested it, saying it’s not but a true life story. “I keep hearing this over and over from people saying that the movie is a Christian film and I know why that is. It is because of the title but you only need to see the film to realise that it had nothing on Christianity or any religion.
“It is simply a human story. The idea for the movie came from a real life story I heard which was corroborated from another source and we had to invite someone who had similar experience.
That was how we developed the story and the script.”
The actress with 17 movie productions to her credit has the upcoming movie as her first full feature. As a screenwriter, she has written and cowritten movies, some of which include; The Celebrity, Games Men Play, Girls in