A Journalist, a Musician, and a Filmmaker Walk Into a Room for a Film Screening

Uzoamaka Power said that she had invited only 19 people. I wasn’t one of them. But when I saw her at the entrance of the room and told her I worked with Zikoko, she gave me a very warm welcome.

She is one of the directors of the Zikoko Life anthology, a series of short films based on stories that have already been published on Zikoko. She also wrote her short, My Body, God’s Temple . We are at an invite-only private screening for the film.

Andrew Yaw Bunting and Uzoamaka Power on the set of My Body, God’s Temple.

Blessing Uzzi, the producer of the anthology, had sent Power a bunch of stories published on this website and asked her which ones she would love to adapt into a short film. Initially, she considered the story that became Something Sweet , another short from the anthology written and directed by Dika Ufoma.

My Body, God’s Temple follows Omasilu, played by Power, a young wife who grew up Catholic, marries Zion, played by Andrew Yaw Bunting, and begins to face a mild form of vaginismus in her marriage. During sex, her knees clench.

There have been instances of women suffering from vaginismus where the vagina completely locks up and is impenetrable in some extreme cases. Sometimes the entire lower body is clenched.

Globally, research speculates that around seven per cent of women suffer from the condition. But in countries like Ghana, Turkey, and Iran, the number of women who suffer from it is way higher.

The film shows Omasilu as she contends with religion and the new challenge at hand—how to get fucked.

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When it’s time to watch My Body, God’s Temple, almost all 19 people Power had invited had come. Her manager, Onah Uzonwanne, is present as a kind of co-host, putting things in order. The actor Ogranya, who stars in Something Sweet, is present. One of her close friends, the actress Angel Anosike, is present. There were some other actors, her stylist Vche Uba, Dwin the Stoic—a friend she met at the Farafina Workshop, the writing program hosted by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, which she was a part of in 2015—is here. He is a former editor-in-chief of Zikoko but is now a musician. There were other filmmakers and people who work in Nollywood present.

So it was fitting that in a den of creatives, the icebreaker would be to sing a line from a song. I, who could not sing publicly even if a gun were held to my head, decided to decline.

“Thank you so much for coming,” Power said. We watched mostly in silence. Occasionally someone would break the silence to throw jabs at the characters and their various decisions and indecisions.

“I’m not sure where you would find this type of Nigerian man, but I wrote him,” Power said jokingly. Later, she added that Bunting was that type of man, after which someone promptly reminded her that even he was not Nigerian. “I love Andrew so much,” she said.

A rising leading man who is Ghanaian but has been able to snag some high-profile roles in Nollywood, including starring opposite Tiwa Savage in her film Water and Garri, Power had been a fan of his work for a while. But she didn’t want him for this short film. “I was saving him,” was how she put it. A man of his acting talent—she wanted him for another project, perhaps a feature-length film. But they had spent too long looking for a male lead who fit the role.

At the last minute, she snapped out of the decision to keep him for something else and sent him the script. He wanted more details, understandably. He didn’t want to be the kind of actor who didn’t care enough about their characters to ask what the goal of the project was. But Power didn’t have the time. They had started shooting.

So he flew to Nigeria, and he became her Zion.

Andrew Yaw Bunting and Uzoamaka Power in Zikoko Life’s My Body, God’s Temple.

The arrival of this film also marks a shift in her career. When Power went to that Farafina workshop a decade ago in June, she wasn’t even Uzoamaka yet. It had always been her name, but she went by Doris. “10: DORIS ANIUNOH” is how her name is listed on the Farafina website. But she was going to be travelling to the UK for a Master’s in Creative Writing at Birmingham University. So Chimamanda suggested that she go with Uzoamaka instead, because “there would be a lot of Dorises in Birmingham.”

When she started working in Nollywood, she started to sign her posts on Instagram with #uzoamakapower. “It meant that I was doing things,” she said. But then it became more for her—a new identity, a new person—so she adopted it as her name. In the credits for My Body, God’s Temple, her name is written as Uzoamaka Power.

What I found most beautiful about the film is how it tackles consent in marriage. There are many who have claimed that rape is not possible in marriage. “I have heard people say he was very patient. But as opposed to what?” she said of Zion, who supported his wife as she struggled to unclench her knees during sex. “Consent is sexy,” she added.

We also spoke about a scene where Omasilu walks in on Zion masturbating in the bathroom. Someone asked why the character interpreted it as him cheating. “She felt alienated,” Power said. The character, she added, had understood that it was a problem they were both seeking a solution to. But seeing him get off made her realise it was really a problem she had to fix. She felt betrayed by it. As we spoke, we ate and drank and ate more and drank more.

Uzoamaka Power hugs producer, Blessing Uzzi on the set of My Body, God’s Temple.

When the producer Uzzi walked in with Laken Afolabi, the director of Freedom Way , a few of us had left. They took pictures. Someone asked about small chops. I realised I had packed most of the small chops in my ziplock bag. “You did some destruction in that place,” Ogranya said to me.

My phone was buzzing. My Uber was downstairs. I said good night. Power hugged me again. “Thanks so much for coming,” she said. “Congrats on the film,” I said.

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Source: Zikoko | Continue to Full Story… from Zikoko.com