Screening times:
Friday, July 4, 6:30 PM
Sunday, July 6, 5:30 PM
The Agbajowo Collective | Nigeria, Germany, South Africa, USA | 2024 | 101m
Nigerian Pidgin, Egun, English, and Yoruba, with English subtitles
with Temi Ami-Williams, Debo Adedayo, and Gerard Avlessi
Jawu, a young mother scraping by in an indifferent city, lives in one of the floating slums on a lagoon that gives the megacity Lagos its name. The spirit of the great warrior king Egbaezen has marked her for a terrible responsibility and ordeal. Danger now threatens his people, as corrupt officials conspire to evict thousands and destroy this community, however modest it might be, it's home to thousands. Jawu, stumbles upon a bag of corrupt blood money marked for a real estate development that threatens her home, and she takes it. Overcoming isolation and temptation, she must become a unifying force in a community that stands to lose everything.
This story is inspired by what happened to the people of Otodo Gbame in 2017 – a Lagos waterfront community of 30,000 swept into the lagoon, destroyed by municipal government, its residents left homeless. The filmmakers decided the best way to shine a light on this history, to celebrate those who tried to resist this tragedy, was to fictionalize it, mythologize it in a film.
"We came together to tell this story because it had to be told," the Collective said in their directors' statement. "Every day since 2017 Otodo Gbame residents remain displaced, as with tens of thousands more from other communities across Lagos. Many more remain under the threat of forced eviction in Lagos, and in ever-growing megacities across the world.
"(We) knew that if we could capture our environment in an authentic way, we would create something the world had never seen."
"It’s about the voice of the oppressed becoming the very weapon needed to defeat tyranny. Make it so the tyrants can’t hide behind their titles, so the world can no longer turn a blind eye." - Jared Mobarak, The Film Stage
"Beautifully lensed by Leo Purman, the film very carefully depicts this waterfront community filled with precarity without bending to negative tropes around poverty." - Olivia Popp, Cineuropa
"Although The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos aims to raise global awareness about the compulsive eviction of poor Nigerians from their homes and communities, it also immerses viewers in a compelling cinematic journey." - Seyi Lasisi, Afrocritik
Tickets $12 ($11.40 cash at the door if available)
