Step aside Hollywood, Nigerian Cinema is on the move! Nollywood has once again achieved new heights in terms of world class entertainment through the movie 93 days .
93days showcases movie greats like American actor, Danny Glover, Bimbo Akintola, Charles Okafor and Gideon Okeke as they reenact on the big screen Nigeria’s battle against the deadly epidemic Ebola. Yours truly saw the movie yesterday and was blown away.
The producers reveal it cost over N400 million to create this masterpiece making it the third most expensive movie ever produced in Nigeria (93 days comes behind Half of a Yellow Sun(N1.27 billion) and The CEO with a budget a bit over N600 million at the current exchange rate.
Produced by Bolanle Austen-Peters, Dotun Olakunri, Pemon Rami and Steve Gukas, the movie tells the graphic tale of how the medical practitioners at First Consultant hospital and Nigeria as a whole fought to contain the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). It also showcases the pain and suffering of some of those who lost their lives in the process.
The producers put together an amazing cast to give Oscar-picture quality. During the press screening I was very impressed by the angles especially the aerial ones. And did I mention the soundtrack? Mind blowing.
Talking about Soundtrack, the producers said that they went as far as Macedonia to seek out the best but didn’t leave Nigerians out of it. The music director of the Muson center Tunde Jegede did the arrangement, while Omawumi, Banky W, Brymo all helped in giving the movie topnotch score.
Important to also note was that the producers carried along as much as possible those whose lives were affected by the Ebola invasion. In fact, the ambulance drivers in the movie were the actual ambulance drivers who drove during the actual crisis.
One of the producers Mrs Bolanle Austen-Peters who produced and directed renown stage musical Wakaa, furthermore shed light on the challenges of pooling funds especially the mindset of private organisations and corporate bodies where investing in Nollywood is concerned. But alas, they were all able to pull it off because honestly the movie can only be compared to a Warner Bros or Universal Studio production…again aaaammmaziiing!
During a brief Q&A she explained bout the movie title and support from Lagos state Government :
“The movie title is simply the numbers of days Nigeria battled Ebola from when Sawyer arrived Nigeria to the day Nigeria was declared Ebola free by the World Health Organisation (WHO).”
“Lagos state gave us support. We tried to show in the film how the Lagos state government reacted very quickly in a positive manner to transform the wards because we were not expecting Ebola and hope that we portrayed Lagos state in a very good light.”
The movie 93 days hits cinemas near you come September 19. It is a MUST WATCH for every NIGERIAN!
Good for them.