Produced by Zuri 24 Media, The Man Died, according to the synopsis on its website — www.themandiedmovie.com — is the story of Wole Soyinka’s 27 months incarceration by the Nigerian government in 1967 at the cusp of the civil war. He was famously seeking a truce between Biafra and the Federal Government to allow time for a negotiated settlement of the conflict. It is fundamentally a personal account
PRESS RELEASE
FRIDAY, July 11, The Man Died, the 105-mins feature film inspired by the “Prison notes” of the Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, will be screened at the Auditorium of the University of Stuttgart, Germany, as part of ongoing 2025 Africa Theatre Association, AfTA Conference.
The film will be screened at 7.00 pm at the School of Media/Hochschule der Medien, and is expected to attract a rich mix of academics, conference attendees, culture researchers and other members of the university and the larger Stuttgart community.
In an invitation letter extended to the producer of the film, Femi Odugbemi, the convener of the conference convenor, Professor (Dr) Annette Buhler-Dietrich, stated:
It gives us great pleasure to invite you to attend the 2025 Conference of the African Theatre Association (AfTA) at the University of Stuttgart, Germany on the theme of African and Afrodiasporic Theatre in the Digital Age. The conference is taking place between July 10 and 12, 2025.
We would especially like to invite you to screen your movie The Man Died as part of the Conference 2025. The conference will happen in Stuttgart with the opening ceremony on the evening of the July 11. The screening of your film is scheduled for July 11, 7pm, at the School of Media/Hochschule der Medien, Stuttgart. There will be a discussion after the screening.
The invitation also extends invitation to the director of the festival., Awam Amkpa, and the producers to participate in a post-screening conversation that would feature members of the university community and the AfTA conferees, engaging the film the content and context of the film. Essentially, the Conversation will have the director and producers exploring how The Man Died, to examine the creative choices, challenges, and cultural resonances involved in translating text to film.
Written by a notable Nigerian script/screenwriter, Bode Asiyanbi, based in the United Kingdom, The Man Died, which aside the 105-minute version is also available as a 124-minutes (for academic exposition), stars a coterie of renowned names on the Nigerian screen, including Wale Ojo as Wole, Sam Dede as Yisa, Norbert Young (Prison Superintendent), Francis Onwochei (Prison Controller) and Edmond Enaibe as Commissioner; as well as international actors, London-UK-based Christiana Oshunniyi (Laide Soyinka), and Los Angeles, USA-based Abraham Awam-Amkpa (Johnson), among others.
Synopsis: Produced by Zuri 24 Media, The Man Died, according to the synopsis on its website — www.themandiedmovie.com — is the story of Wole Soyinka’s 27 months incarceration by the Nigerian government in 1967 at the cusp of the civil war. He was famously seeking a truce between Biafra and the Federal Government to allow time for a negotiated settlement of the conflict. It is fundamentally a personal account. Essentially, the subject found refuge from the brutality inflicted upon him by retreating into and living within his own mind. At times, he drifted about the frontiers of madness, hanging on to himself by a thread. At other times, he pondered, listened, and watched, like only the truly otherwise unoccupied can. Importantly, he managed to scrounge paper and a pencil from time to time and record his journey of ‘motionlessness.”
Since release in July 2024 to mark the 90th birthday anniversary of the poet, dramatist, essayist, memoirist, polemicist and “global humanist”, the film has been doing well in global film circuits, as well as at educational circuits. It is also being considered for special screenings at educational institutions in Florence, Italy; Abu Dhabi in the UAE; at New York University, Harvard University, and at Ithaca College, all in the USA; at Oxford University, in the United Kingdom; as well as at the House of World Culture in Berlin, Germany, among others. This is as it is also being reviewed by at least three major global streaming platforms, and international distribution channels.
*****
The Man died… the journey so far: Though yet to be officially released to the market, The Man Died, since its “special-premiere” in July in Lagos to mark 90th birthday, began its global tour in London in July as part of the Wole Soyinka at 90 celebration jointly organized and hosted by the Africa Centre and the Wole Soyinka International Cultural Exchange, WSICE. It returned to same London in October as part of the African Film Festival, and also had an educational screening at the University of East Anglia, Norwich. It was screened on October 11 on the ‘Accra Streamfest’ bill of the “Labone Dialogues”, hosted by New York University, NYU Accra.
It has had a series of home runs, including on October 5 at the Quramo Festival of Words, QFest 2024, Lagos; and the Lagos Book & Art Festival, LABAF on November 14. It had earlier featured at the African Film Festival, AFRIFF, in November 5-9, where it clinched the Best Scriptwriting Award; and at the Eastern Nigeria International Film Festival, Enugu, – ENIFF , November 27-29, where it was voted Best Audience Choice Award. It also picked the Best Film That Tackles an Important African Issue’ at the Luxor Int’l Film Festival, Jan.9-14. It has been variously nominated at various other tines, including: Best Feature Narrative Award, Pan African Film Festival, PAFF – Feb. 4-17; and Best African Film; Best Editing; Best Film – Jo’Burg Film Festival, March 11-16
*****
Note on the Director
The director of the film, an actor, playwright, director of stage plays, films and curator of visual arts, Awam Amkpa is a Nigerian-American professor of drama, film, and social and cultural analysis at the New York University in New York and Abu Dhabi. Author of Theatre and Postcolonial Desires (Routledge, 2003), Awam is director of film documentaries and curator of photographic exhibitions and film festivals. He has also written several articles on representations in Africa and its diasporas, representations, and modernisms in theater, postcolonial theater, and Black Atlantic films. Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoeiYA8vjrk&t=885s
Note on the Producer
The Producer, an accomplished storyteller, content producer, filmmaker, and media scholar, Femi Odugbemi is the Founder/CEO of Zuri24 Media Lagos, producers of the film. His screen credits over 25 years in the creative industries span feature films, multiple drama TV series and documentaries. He was one of the founding producers of the daily soap opera Tinsel as well as Executive Producer of several popular TV soap operas, including Battleground; Brethren; Movement JAPA, and Covenant, among others. Also, producer of several award-winning documentaries and feature films, Odugbemi is Co-Founder/Executive Director of the IREPRESENT International Documentary Film Festival Lagos and a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSqp6Z0XsuE