Tosin Obebeko, screenwriter, poet and composer
The Nigerian screenwriter granted an interview with MN in the IV edition of the African Cinema Festival Africanos, by Vitoria-Gasteiz, where she presented the film Over The Bridge (2023).
The feature film over The Bridge, with his script and directed by Tolu Ajayi, tells the story of a Nigerian businessman and his mental health problems derived from his involvement in a megaproject in Lagos. How has the film been received?
In Nigeria we have only shown it at a festival, but we have had opportunities to show it at more international African cinemas festivals, where it has been well received. There are people in Nigeria who would see this type of films, but the question is how to get to a broader audience, either programming in cinemas or being on a local streaming platform. The process is long and I feel that it has to do with the criteria to classify a movie as a commercial. When we are able to see the movie more people, we can better discuss what people think of it.
How would I encourage you?
Within the team we have had strips and loosers about what certain elements of the film represented and finally we decided that it was the public who made their own decisions. Going down to the heart of the film, we can commit to the protagonist’s mental health journey, which is what the tape is about. We all know men, either because they are married, because they are friends or family, who are going through a crisis such that they feel that they cannot talk about it, and the film seeks to be a way to generate debate and that someone can benefit from it.
What is more challenging, being a screenwriter or producer?
I think writing is more natural and, despite knowing the rules and structures of writing, I don’t like writing with them. Although I have had to learn to work within a structure and restrict some ideas, I prefer that it is the characters who guide me. However, it has been a good and pleasant process to work with a director so experienced and passionate that he collaborated to tell this story in the best way we could. I felt that it was a good encounter of minds, a transition as a writer, because I had to get out of creative space and be a bit more logical to get to certain decisions. Anyway, I also worked naturally, I did not feel it as something difficult, I enjoyed it, it was an learning. You said what was more difficult, right?
More challenging.
I would actually say that writing because, although it is more natural for me, it was also a more emotional process. With production it was more a matter of decision making and it was fun. Actually, it was the easiest part.
It is his second film, after Wedding Party. What was more difficult?
They are very different. The first was for producers who got together to make a Nollywood blockbuster. This is a story that we wanted to tell from the heart and that has developed with a lot of passion. The two have been very different. What was more difficult? In Wedding Party I just wrote something and it was the producers who decided what to do with it because they had to make it commercial. With Over The Bridge I was very involved in decision -making and that was very exciting, so I will choose the latter.
How did the idea of the script occur to him?
I was leading my grandfather’s funeral, on the other side of Lagos. And you have this image that divides two worlds: on the one hand the most tourist part, the big corporations, the high buildings, a lot of activity, and in the other something very different, another rhythm that distinguishes the two demographies of the city. We cross that bridge all the time, going from one place to another, visiting family or working. But this time I imagined the story of this man who disappeared and his family did not know where he was. I started to think what would have taken him there, because I felt that I would understand the need to want to leave not only physically, but almost in a spiritual way. And so it was, playing with that idea that sometimes you need to leave everything, something that led to its mental health history and real needs.
How is the creative process of writing a script?
As I have been growing I have tried to be more disciplined, but I do not get it and write according to what I feel, which is surely a nightmare for any producer and director. I try to write according to the treatment of a script and make sure to section it in parts and try to apply a logical approach to what is a creative process. From a synopsis, the idea is to build a script to know where I want to go and reduce the possibility of going for the tangent, that’s why I have so many unfinished scripts! But when I write it is also important to do so about the characters in which I am genuinely interested. I want to know where they take me and try to be faithful as far as possible, I worry about them and I want to tell their stories in the most authentic way possible, although perhaps they have not lived their lives. This is how I focus on this process, which can take me from three months to a couple of years.
The tape escapes the classic themes of African cinema that comes to us. Do you think it can help change the vision of the continent?
People are now more free to start telling a much broader range of stories. It can be seen in the so -called New Nollywood, the new Nigerian cinema, which is somewhat more daring to tell a type of stories that can transcend the continent. I think our film can help change that vision of Africa and is one of the debates it is generating. Business people said they felt reflected in the characters and that is important for me.
The tape escapes the classic themes of African cinema that comes to us. Do you think it can help change the vision of the continent?
People are now more free to start telling a much broader range of stories. It can be seen in the so -called New Nollywood, the new Nigerian cinema, which is somewhat more daring to tell a type of stories that can transcend the continent. I think our film can help change that vision of Africa and is one of the debates it is generating. Business people said they felt reflected in the characters and that is important for me.
How do the two realities that are reflected in the film coexist?
They almost live together, and that is what I find most fascinating to live in Nigeria. There are many things in the country that unite us, something that is seen in the celebrations, where different social classes are mixed. You tend to develop the need to want to help the person next to you, because you know that your lives are very different. We all fight to work and arrive at the end of the month, but with very different realities. I am interested in analyzing the enormous disparity we live. In the background, I wonder how we close that gap or, at least, how we work to make it a little more equitable. These realities coexist and although it is not ideal, the Nigerians have found a way of working in that ecosystem and making it habitable.
How is the economic crisis affecting the Nigerian cinema industry?
Very negatively. Now production costs are probably triple that when we record the movie. Streaming platforms introduced the possibility of getting an economic return, there was a business incentive to make films, but now that is declining. Many films are taking place, the Nigerians are very creative and our jobs are getting better, but we are experiencing a bottleneck and we have to deal with the financial crisis and their peripheries, that is, to the part of the distribution.
In addition to a screenwriter, she is a poet and composer. What do you enjoy more?
With the songs, definitely. It is the easiest for me. The melodies come to me at any time and I always feel that they are fine. It has become a beautiful process for me, because then the melodies push me to write the lyrics.
Have you written any of the movie songs?
No, for this no! But I worked with the composer and I loved it. It was very nice to listen to his ideas and how he interpreted the moods in the film. And then we had to choose original songs from people I know whose songs I liked. I was very close to writing one when we were in the search process, but in the end not.
Maybe for next.
Yes, because it is a musical. It began as a play produced by some friends and collaborators with whom I have already worked, and now I am adapting it to record a movie.
