Preceding
its cinema entry nationwide with over 10 million views of its teaser
since its release in November, as well as a feature on CNN African
Voices, make ‘God Calling’ the movie to watch this holiday season,
writes Ferdinand Ekechukwu
For
many ardent watchers of Nollywood films, faith based genre is not a
regular item to be found on the movie menu. Reason being it’s element of
preachy substance that leaves such production oftentimes drab. So one
can imagine the excitement that accompanies the teaser and then the
trailer of ‘God Calling’, making it one of the last seven movies
released in the month of December, including Heaven on My Mind, Chief
Daddy, Power of 1, Kasala, Knockout Blessing and Up North.
The
teaser, which was released in November, garnered over 10 million views
from several countries, as well as, a feature on CNN African Voices as
one of the movies to look forward to during the Yuletide celebrations.
God Calling chronicles the life of Sade (the central character played by
Zainab Balogun) who suffers a personal tragedy of drug addiction and
spiritually taken on a journey of self-discovery and faith, which
transforms the lives of those around her.
God
Calling shines a spotlight on modern-day spirituality by imaginatively
exploring what it might look like for Abraham or Prophet Elijah to be
Nigerian in 2018, and have to contend with disbelief as well as
modern-day realities such as smartphones, and social media in what it
would look like should your caller ID say, ‘God Calling’ and sets you on
an roller coaster of what to expect from the movie. From the stable of
Hearts in Motion Studios, God Calling explores faith, hope, healing, and
hearing from God; it made cinema entry nationwide penultimate Friday.
At
a time when the moral and ethical standards of our society are being
heavily influenced by entertainment and the church is seen to be
struggling to be part of the conversation among young people, the
inspirational movie looks at family and faith through the lens of an
unconventional encounter with God in this modern age. Written and
directed by Bodurin ‘BB’ Sasore, who is known for his works Before 30,
the television series about the pressures of marriage especial for women
and the supernatural, farcical comedy Banana Island Ghost, one of the
biggest Nollywood movies of 2017.
Like
Banana Island Ghost, BB Sasore’s topics in God Calling are daring and
experimental, depicting his range as a director. The movie stars such
big names as Onyeka Onwenu, Richard Mofe-Damijo, Nkem Owoh (Osuofia),
Tina Mba, alongside Ademola Adedoyin, Patrick Diabuah, Eku Edewor,Bikiya
Graham Douglas and singer, ChiDynma D’Voice…and the lead cast Zainab
Balogun and a host of others.
Just
a little about the lead actress, Zainab Balogun, a British-Nigerian
model, actress and television presenter, is having it all good acting
and winning fans since making major expose in the Wedding Party movies
and then in Royal Hibiscus.
Sasore
revealed that for the film project to come into fruition, he had to
collaborate with like minds who believe the Nigerian film industry
remains a dominant player within the arts and entertainment sector and
needs to be increasingly supported as one of the country’s largest
non-oil exports. With a long list of seventy crew members, the
production has the backing of executive producers – Ibukun Awosika,
Derin Adeyokunnu, Yomi Jemibewon, Patricia Jemibewon, Uzo Nwagwu,
Chijioke Uwaegbute, Karibi Fubara, ZeeZee Ihe-Okuneye, Olalekan Olude,
Opeyemi Awoyemi, Dolapo Awosika, Enyi Omeruah, and Chioma ‘Chigul’
Omeruah.
On
his inspiration for the movie, the filmmaker considered how the world
is looking to our continent for original stories, and how the Bible is
filled with the most original stories that we each experience in our own
way every day. “It led me to think of how religion would adapt to time
and geography, and this is what birthed God Calling. I think our film
industry has so much potential but lacks the infrastructure and
resources to compete globally. I believe the faith-based genre could do
for Nollywood what martial arts did for Oriental Asia, or romance did
for India.”
Further
on the nature of faith-based stories, the movie cost, cast and crew
members, of God Calling, Sasore explains: “At Nemsia Films, we decided
that the faith-based genre was one we wanted to work in as it seemed
underserved – at least on this scale (cinema, big budget, big actors,
etc). We started Heart in Motion (HIM) Pictures so we could effectively
create infrastructure and content for this genre. The next task was
coming up with a project that would be unapologetically faith-based, but
have a broad appeal.
“In
developing ‘God Calling’ I thought about the reality of purpose in
every person’s life. It made me think of the prophets in the Bible and
what a modern day Elijah or Abraham would look like. What if she was a
woman? What if she lived in Lagos? What if God used modern day
technology to talk to her? And here we are. People are passionate about
religion, and Nigerians are no exception. You might argue that we are
even more passionate. This means there is slight level of faith,
inspiration, redemption, etc to our storytelling.
“We
are a little less nuanced about good and evil, and we don’t love grey
areas. There indeed are others who have made many faith-based films over
the past few decades, and they have become an institution in the space.
However, ‘God Calling’ is on a scale larger than any the industry has
seen so far. Basically all of pre- production, between writing five
drafts of the script, full casting, location scouting, VFX underwater
& green-screen tests, etc all took just under four months.
“Working
with the veterans was completely unexplainable. You go in with
expectations based on who you think they are and what they will bring to
the set, and then you realise you are nowhere close. I was especially
fortunate to have the most gracious actors on set, even with the biggest
stars. RMD was always early, sometimes arriving even before crew.
Onyeka Onwenu was the most pleasant woman ever.
“A
true ‘mother hen’, she gave the entire crew gifts on her last day. Nkem
Owoh is a special talent; he knew everyone’s lines and would give you
variations of every choice in each scene. Tina Mba I have worked with on
all my productions, and she’s an amazing actress.
They
all worked with me on their choices and took direction which was so
inspiring. They were actually very vibrant, and as much fun as some of
the younger actors!”