Asia':The Love Covenant

Asia: The Love Covenant is inspired by my recalled childhood observations, growing up in my hometown, Idumuje-Unor, in the ‘70s, when traditional believes and values still had a fairly good grip on the community. A time in history, when the gods frowned at unlawful sexual intercourse. In the event that such taboo resulted to pregnancy, the man is compelled by tradition, to take the woman in as a wife.

I left my little community a teenager; I left the country an adult and returned an old man, 20 years later. Idumuje-Unor is no longer what it was when I left. Young men and women tread on slippery slopes and engage in forbidden acts of tradition. We now live in a time in history, when the evil forest is now habitable. Teenagers of opposite sex could now hold hands in the public and kiss each other on the street, in broad daylight. Times have so changed that a pregnant teenage girl could now deliver a bastard child in her father’s house and expect to be nursed by her mother and nourished from the sweat and blood of her father.

Using my hometown as a backdrop, I felt the need to tell a story that could inform, educate and entertain the younger generation of Idumuje-Unor in particular and the world population in general, as it concerns the evolving African way of life.

Following my graduation from one of the best hands-on film schools in the world, New York Film Academy, I had just returned to Nigeria a few years ago, after two decades of uninterrupted absence, to establish a film school, Asaba Film Academy, where I train creative and passionate Nigerians at a zero tuition, for the purpose of working with them to execute and distribute film projects that prioritize the African narrative, there couldn’t have been a better film project to jumpstart my career as a Director.

Spending 17 consecutive days in Idumuje-Unor, shooting the film, Asia: the Love Covenant, afforded me with the opportunity to reconnect with my people and at the same time introduce my hometown to the world, telling the story of Idumuje-Unor in Idumuje-Unor. Many Idumuje-Unor indigenes were cast and featured in the film. The experience is mutually beneficial. The people of Idumuje-Unor had a firsthand filmmaking experience and I had a priceless opportunity to reconnect with the sights and sounds of my people and talk film production in my local language. What a cherished rare experience.

I remain grateful for the opportunity to make this film as my debut feature and I remain hopeful that the audience will get to share in my experience of my hometown as a teenager and as an adult, all rolled and wrapped in the film, Asia: The Love Covenant.