Synopsis
The story of IYORE was born out of the keen interest in telling an African tale with a rich cultural background and as a son of the soil of the great Benin kingdom I sure will leave no stone unturned.
A thorough research was made on the tradition and customs of my people; I worked through days and nights in creating the storyline of IYORE. It wasn’t an easy task but being my very first movie to be filmed on the ground and soil of my birth, I had to put in an extra effort to make sure this movie is rated best out of my best and multiple award winning movies.
My father once said to me: “ Efosa [Frank] you are a great film maker, one of Africa’s finest of this time. I am happy for your successes but its time you make me proud by telling the story of our cultural heritage…
African stories. We have enough stories to tell as Africans”. Then I said: Nehizena, there is time for everything and he said to me: This is the time! And that became a drive that gave birth to this great mythical tale exercise that took me weeks to plot.
Another tooth pulling was making my choice of cast. I needed actors, professionally trained ones and not just big names in the field. Hence my choice of the queen of the screen, Rita Dominic, trained, experienced with a good depth of interpretation. She will stop at 2 nothing but perfection as my female lead actor.
And to strike a balance with such an ace actress I had to employ the services of the talented Okawa Shaznay to interpret and link three of my most sensitive characters in the story. And trust me she did great justice to them all. Not to mention the amazing Joseph Benjamin as Prince Azuwa of the great Benin kingdom, Paul Obazele as Oba Izuwa of Benin, Yemi Blaq as the victim of the circle, Bukky wright as Queen Funke Adekoya of Ondo state and a host of other great talents. I sure could not have gotten my cast better than I did. In the end I am quite sure I have not failed my people and my millions of fans out there.
Producing and Directing IYORE was an amazing experience for my crew, cast, family and myself. I hope the rest of the world will love and enjoy watching this film as much as we did creating it.
