Multiple award-winning Nollywood filmmaker, Kunle Afolayan, has secured deals with the governments of Cape Verde and Senegal and the Nigerian Embassy in Senegal for his new movie ‘The Citation’.
The movie, which is currently in pre-production, is expected to be shot in January 2020.
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Since arriving in Senegal with his crew on October 16 on location recce, Kunle has met with top government officials in Dakar, Senegalese capital, as well as in Cape Verde.
The filmmaker arrived the country with famous production designer, Pat Nebo; associate producer, Seun Soyinka; entertainment consultant, Yinka Oyedeji, and Lanre Omofaiye.
According to Kunle, ‘The Citation’ apart from its thematic premise, will also serve to market Cape Verde to Nigerians and the rest of the world while also establishing film and cultural affinity between the two countries.
Cape Verde’s Culture and Creative Industries Minister, Abrãao Vicente, led the government team that included the Director-General of Arts and Creative Industries, Adilson Lima Gomes, and the Coordinator of Cultural Goods and Music, Luhena Correia, in negotiating the deal.
In Senegal, the filmmaker secured a deal on choice locations, with support from corporate entities and the Nigerian embassy in the country, having met with Nigerian envoy to Senegal, Ambassador Salisu Umaru, who led other senior officials like the minister at the embassy, A.K Zanng and Senior Counsellor, Adamu Akinola, in welcoming ‘The Citation’ team.
On some of the cast and crew, Kunle revealed that Senegalese Alexander Rideau had been chosen as line producer, together with Dakar-based Keewu Productions and Samira Vera-Cruz of Cape Verde.
He said the cast of the movie, which would launch another female Nigerian into the movie industry, would be revealed soon.
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A story written by Tunde Babalola, ‘The Citation’ treats the volatile subject of lecturer-student sexual exploitation. It will be shot in Nigeria, Senegal and Cape Verde, similar to Kunle’s 2016 multi-location flick, ‘The CEO’.
After six of Kunle’s movies were acquired and released on the Netflix platform, including his most recent film, ‘Mokalik’ which had earlier represented Nigeria at the Durban International Film Festival in July, ‘Mokalik’ has also been officially selected at Carthage Film Festival in Tunisia this week on the official invitation from the organisers.
