Biyi Bandele from Nigeria: a storyteller to the core
Biyi Bandele from Nigeria: a storyteller to the core
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Nigerian writer Molara Wood pays tribute to author and filmmaker Biyi Bandele, whose film premiered in Canada a few weeks after his death.
Bandele's latest film is an adaptation of Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka's play Death and the King's Horseman.
It explores real-life events in the Oyo Kingdom of 1940s West Africa, in which the king's horseman was held by the tradition of dying by ritual suicide and following the Alaafin (ruler of Oyo) into the afterlife.
Bandele, in a tragic twist, did not live to see the release of perhaps his most triumphant film, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September, a month after the director died at the age of just 54. He was buried in Lagos, Nigeria's main city, on Friday.
Bandele's daughter Temi was in the Canadian city for the bittersweet showcase of the film, described by Variety magazine as "a passion project" for the director.
Paying tribute on Twitter, TIFF Director General Cameron Bailey said: "Biyi Bandele was doing something so rare in world cinema: adaptations scale of African literature meant for the whole world."
A multi-faceted artist, Bandele, who lived in London, was an important figure in the scene British literary and was also known for his achievements over the past decade in the Nigerian film industry.
Nigerian writer Molara Wood pays tribute to author and filmmaker Biyi Bandele, whose film premiered in Canada a few weeks after his death.
Bandele's latest film is an adaptation of Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka's play Death and the King's Horseman.
It explores real-life events in the Oyo Kingdom of 1940s West Africa, in which the king's horseman was held by the tradition of dying by ritual suicide and following the Alaafin (ruler of Oyo) into the afterlife.
Bandele, in a tragic twist, did not live to see the release of perhaps his most triumphant film, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September, a month after the director died at the age of just 54. He was buried in Lagos, Nigeria's main city, on Friday.
Bandele's daughter Temi was in the Canadian city for the bittersweet showcase of the film, described by Variety magazine as "a passion project" for the director.
Paying tribute on Twitter, TIFF Director General Cameron Bailey said: "Biyi Bandele was doing something so rare in world cinema: adaptations scale of African literature meant for the whole world."
A multi-faceted artist, Bandele, who lived in London, was an important figure in the scene British literary and was also known for his achievements over the past decade in the Nigerian film industry.
Source image, Getty Image s
