Kajola: Most expensive Nollywood film premiers in Abuja

The producers claim it is the most expensive film to have been produced in the country and it focuses on love, lust and struggle for power.  In the words of the director/script writer; “We have told the same story in a different premise using sci–fi as a medium and using special effects.”

The movie combines Computer generated Images (CGI) with real images of Lagos with abstract computer generated illustration to deliver a story set in the year 2059.

 It opens with a devastated Lagos after a second civil war – The rich relocate to the island area of the state, transforming their side of town, while the mainlanders were disconnected and abandoned. Allen leads a rebellion codenamed “Kajola”  against the government . Police Chief, Yetunde [played by Keira Hewatch] is to stop the rebellion. Somewhere along the line they came to a realization that they were lied to.

Besides the whooping sum sank into the production, the plot of the movie, which is intended to appeal to all Nigerians, is of equal interest. It explores the implications of the continuous neglect of the poor and the widening gap between the rich and the poor and the catastrophic outcome of such neglect.

Adonijah Owiriwa, executive producer of the film, said one of the lessons to be learnt from the movie is that it “heightens the fact that if we don’t deal with the segregation and negligence issues facing our country today, then our future will be quite predictable because as the theme of the movie states tomorrow is today.”

The film stars Desmond Elliot as Ayub, a power drunk Inspector General of Police with an eye on Keira Hewatch, who stars  in the role of Yetunde, a police chief bent on bringing to justice a notorious rebel leader Allen, played by Adonijah Owiriwa.

All the stars were at the Abuja premier, but not so the prominent guests, including Dame Patience Jonathan, who were said to be away in Germany to cheer the Falconets.

Kajola, a Yoruba word which translates as ‘commonwealth’ is from the stable of a Port Harcourt based record label and film studio, Adonai Productions.