The weeks leading up to a world premiere are usually a time of celebration and anticipation for filmmakers, especially when this premiere takes place at the Toronto Film Festival. But for the team behind “Elesin Oba, The King’s Horseman,” which is produced by Mo Abudu’s EbonyLife Films and Netflix and will feature in the festival’s presentations section, there will be a long shadow cast on the red carpet on opening night.
Just weeks before the film’s world premiere on September 10, director Pei Pandel passed away in Lagos, Nigeria. His sudden and tragic passing on the eve of what would have been his crowning achievement as a director sent shock waves through the film community, particularly in Africa and across the diaspora.
When the news broke, TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey praised the director, writing in a tweet on Twitter: “Biyai Bandele was doing something so rare in world cinema: large-scale adaptations of African literature destined for the entire world.” Executive Producer Abboud described his death as “a huge loss for all of us”.
She said, “Bye worked easily in the way and the way he worked in directing.” diverse. “We will miss that…and how he was able to understand the Yoruba culture, our traditions, and those nuances that are truly Nigerian.”
“Elysine oppa, the knight of the king,” said Abboud, the movie the late director was so excited about. Based on real-life events in Nigeria in 1943, it is set in the Oyo Empire, where a Knight King must ritually commit suicide to follow the deceased king into the afterlife. However, his intentions are derailed by sexual desire, resulting in a fatal clash with the British authorities and forcing his spirit to wander the land, spelling doom for the land and its people.
The film is based on the play “Death and the King’s Knight” by Wole Soyinka, the first work of the Nigerian Nobel laureate to be made into a feature film.
Abboud acquired the rights to the play a decade ago but “has spent the past 10 years trying to produce it, mainly because of the cost of production,” she said. Only when Netflix got on board did it feel possible to achieve the scale and scope required for production.
Pandel, who directed the EbonyLife feature film “Fifty” and co-directed the company’s Netflix series “Blood Sisters,” shared her vision of staying true to both Yoruba traditions and the popular Soyinka play. It is the passion of those convictions that Abboudo says will be sorely missed.
“He left behind a huge legacy, based on his written work, based on the films he directed,” she said. ‘Death and the King’s Knight’ is an important piece of intellectual property for us in Nigeria, for literature, for those who love the arts, for many people. It is the first time that this film has been turned into a feature film. It’s a real legacy that Biyi was able to write the adaptation, and it’s a real legacy that he was able to direct this work.”
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