Filmmaker Niyi Akinmolayan has said his upcoming film Colours of Fire is the launch of a new storytelling style he calls Afrofusion.
In a video shared on Instagram on Wednesday, the director said:
“Colours of Fire is the beginning of a whole new genre. A genre that I have been thinking of for about five years. It’s called Afrofusion.”
Explaining the concept, he said:
“Afrofusion, in the heart of it, is the idea that you can tell a story. When I say story, it can be art, it can be food, it can be music. You can tell a story by bringing all the influences that are uniquely African. And you have to be very deliberate about it.”
Akinmolayan noted that Colours of Fire was designed to reflect cultures from across the continent.
He said:
“When you watch Colors of Fire, there are Yoruba elements in it. There are elements from other West African cultures involved. There are Benin iconographies in it. There are stuff from Northern Nigeria in it. The actors speak English and a little bit of Yoruba. The leading actor is an Igbo guy, but his name is Akinbodi. The leading actress is an Edo girl, but her name is Moremi. At that point, it no longer becomes about one culture or one person.”
Calling the film a blend of Africa’s best, he added:
“What it does, if we get our Afrofusion genre right, is that it excites everyone from outside Africa to want to know more. It’s like a salad. It’s like this lovely salad where you have the best of all the worlds together.”
The director said Afrofusion could also fix long-standing film distribution challenges across the continent.
He said:
“The other thing Afrofusion would do is it would break this curse of pan-African distribution that isn’t happening and should be happening. We need to make films where one actor is Kenyan, the other actor is Ugandan, the third actor is an Igbo guy. It’s really important that I want everyone to see culture.”
Akinmolayan added that although he is Yoruba, he is excited about showcasing the richness of other cultures.
“I’m originally Yoruba, but I’m excited about the possibilities of Igbo culture, Benin, Ibibio, Hausa. I want to bring all of that into a film. We can have a unified language, which is English, which we all know, or we can decide on what we want to use. But Afrofusion is the way forward.”
Colours of Fire, produced by Anthill Studios in partnership with FilmOne Studios, is scheduled for release on December 24. It stars Osas Ighodaro, Uzor Arukwe, Mercy Aigbe, Femi Branch, Gabriel Afolayan and others.
The epic story follows a warrior sent by his clan to hunt down a feared beast, only to discover hidden truths that challenge loyalty, love and honour.
Industry viewers who saw early footage praised the film’s visual scale, cultural detail and ambition, calling it one of Nollywood’s most anticipated holiday releases.
