Film Adaptation of Wole Soyinka’s Ake Released on Amazon
Two years after venturing into the international limelight at the annual Cannes Film Festival in France, Ake – the film adaptation of Wole Soyinka’s international award-winning childhood memoir Ake, The Years of Childhood – has taken another leap of faith, which sees it now released on Amazon and other global platforms.
The film’s storyline, set during World War II years, story combines a beautiful child-view narrative with resonances from the war as heard and imagined in Soyinka’s hometown in Ake, Abeokuta before climaxing with the Egba women’s riot of 1945, led by Mrs Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, mother of the deceased musician Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.
Shot at various locations in Abeokuta, Ibadan, Lagos and East Grinstead, UK, the film has (besides being screened at the Cannes Film Festival) been screened in Lagos and the United States. For its Cannes Film Festival screening, the French subtitles were done by Alliance Francaise, Lagos.
The film flaunts an impressive nearly 1000-strong cast that featured such Nigeria’s foremost film and theatre titans as Taiwo Ajayi-Lycett (OON), Yinka Davies, Yeni-Anikulapo-Kuti, Jimi Solanke, Lanike OnimisiBennet, Festus Adegboye Onigbinde, Alex Bratt, Gbenga Ajiboye, Hafiz Oyetoro, Yemi Solade, Wale Ramon, Wale Adebayo, Toyin Abiodun, Bose Oladele, Joke Muyiwa, Samsideen Adesiyan and Bayo Bankole.
Its director Dapo Adeniyi has produced for radio and television in Nigeria as well as the BBC. He was also a British Council Fellow at Downing College, University of Cambridge.
Soyinka’s account is such an important historical script because it portrays a world in turmoil – the Second World War and colonial rule in Nigeria which was pressured by agitation for independence.
Echoes from the war were heard distinctly in Abeokuta by its enlightened communities on rediffusion radio, the headmaster of the local mission school inclusive, who was the writer’s father.
Ake is not an overt historical account but one which relays a crucial chapter in Nigerian history from the eye-witness of a child. The Egba women’s riot, directed by Mrs Kuti, Soyinka’s aunt, was conceived and hatched under his eyes. His mother Eniola, participated as one of the closest collaborators with Kuti in the women’s movement.
Ake valiantly overcomes the usual production challenges in the recreation of film scenery and props, period automobiles and architecture of a bygone era.