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Shot in dense, high-contrast black and white, writer-director C.J. “Fiery” Obasi’s “Mami Wata,” unspools like a mysterious dream. It’s both inscrutable and hypnotic, delivering indelible images while remaining narratively opaque. Billed as a “West African folklore,” its story could be taken as a straightforward fable about tradition vs. modernity and how power corrupts. But as its plot unravels, confounding layers surface beneath that easy explanation. “Mami Wata,” a Sundance discovery selected to be Nigeria’ official Oscar submission, keeps the audience entranced if never truly engaged.

Taking its cues from the legend of the female water spirit revered in that part of the world, Obasi’s story centers on Mama Efe (Rita Edochie), a medium and healer who claims to hold the keys to the all-powerful Mami Wata. The inhabitants of the isolated oceanside village shower Mama Efe with crops and gifts in an effort to win over the water deity.

Discontent stirs in a village that has rejected modern life to follow a faith healer said to be the representative of the title’s water spirit

This visually beautiful and charismatically acted film is a fierce expressionist reverie or parable of power, shot in a lustrous, high-contrast black-and-white by cinematographer Lílis Soares. It is the work of Nigerian director Cj “Fiery” Obasi, whose nickname makes an interesting elemental contrast to his movie’s watery theme. His storytelling urgency and stripped-down minimalism reminded me at various stages of George Orwell and Julie Dash.

We are in a west African village called Iyi, which has ignored the modern world of science and technology in favour of worshipping the traditional water spirit Mami Wata, through her intermediary and representative on Earth, faith-healer Mama Efe (Rita Edochie), to whom tributes of food and money must be paid. But Efe’s daughter Zinwe (Uzoamaka Aniunoh...

Exclusive: The Gotham Group has signed Nigerian filmmaker C.J. Obasi, whose latest feature Mami Wata is Nigeria’s entry for Best International Feature Oscar in the 96th Academy Awards.

Mami Wata world premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in its World Cinema – Dramatic section, where it won the cinematography prize.

Award-winning filmmaker Obasi’s previous credits include Ojuju (2014) and O-Town (2015), which screened at various festivals, including Gothenburg and Fantasia.

His short film, Hello, Rain (2018) premiered at Oberhausen and over 40 festivals, winning a Jury Prize at Fantasia, and the BFI Short Film Award nomination. Juju Stories (2021), an anthology film directed by the Surreal1 Collective, won the Boccalino D’oro Award for Best Film at Locarno.

Set in a remote West African village, Mami Wata follows the villagers who worship the Mermaid-deity Mami Wata and look for guidance from their healer Mama Efe (Rita Edochie), her daughter Zinwe (Uzoamaka Aniunoh) and protégé...

Nigeria has submitted Cj Obasi’s Sundance title Mami Wata as its candidate for the Best International Feature Film in the 96th Academy Awards.

Inspired by West African mermaid folklore and mythology, the black-and-white features stars Rita Edochie as a goddess facing waning influence in a remote struggling village.

Uzoamaka Aniunoh stars as her devoted daughter and Evelyne Ily Juhen as a skeptical protégé.

The deadline for submissions for Best International Feature Film was on October 2, but a number of countries are only announcing their selection now.

Home to Nollywood, Nigeria boasts Africa’s biggest film industry, but the country has yet to enjoy Oscar glory.

The fact that many of its films are in the country’s official language of English has made it difficult for the country to submit films for Best International Film Festival.

Its first-ever entry Lionheart in 2019 was disqualified because of the high percentage of English in the film.

One of the most visually ravishing movies I saw at Sundance Film Festival early this year was C.J. “Fiery” Obasi’s Mami Wata, “A West Afrikan Folklore,” as our exclusive debut of the alternate poster notes. The black-and-white Nigerian feature brings a folk-futurist style to the tale of a battle between opportunistic militants promising technological progress and a matriarchal spiritual order living in fragile harmony with the ocean. Picked up by Dekanalog for a theatrical release beginning on September 29 at Bam in NYC and Chicago’s Gene Siskel Film Center, the film will expand in the weeks to follow.

Here’s the official synopsis: “In the oceanside village of Iyi, the revered Mama Efe (Rita Edochie) acts as an intermediary between the people and the all-powerful water deity Mami Wata. But when a young boy is lost to a virus, Efe’s devoted daughter Zinwe (Uzoamaka Aniunoh) and skeptical...

Director Cj “Fiery” Obasi (Ojuju) is back this year with the black & white Nigerian film Mami Wata, and Bloody Disgusting has been provided with the exclusive trailer reveal today.

Dekanalog brings Mami Wata to U.S. cinemas on September 29, 2023. The Sundance darling is currently 100% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, with 16 reviews posted at this time.

Here’s the official plot synopsis…

“In the oceanside village of Iyi, the revered Mama Efe (Rita Edochie) acts as an intermediary between the people and the all-powerful water deity Mami Wata. But when a young boy is lost to a virus, Efe’s devoted daughter Zinwe (Uzoamaka Aniunoh) and skeptical protégé Prisca (Evelyne Ily Juhen) warn Efe about unrest among the villagers. With the sudden arrival of a mysterious rebel deserter named Jasper (Emeka Amakeze), a conflict erupts, leading to a violent clash of ideologies and a crisis of faith for the people of Iyi.

Growing up has always been a process of reconciling the drive for progress with the inscrutable value of things past. Most viewers outside the Fon coastal communities of southern Nigeria, where this film is set, will find themselves leaning strongly towards the perspective of its youngest protagonist, Zinwe (Uzoamaka Aniunoh), at least to begin with, as she rails against her mother Mama Efe (Rita Edochie), the local priestess, for accepting the loss of children to the sea as a sacrifice, for prioritising her religious beliefs over comforting a grieving mother. There are things which Zinwe doesn’t understand, however, and she is about to get a brutal lesson in the ways of the world.

Shot in gorgeous black and white – it won the Jury Prize for cinematography at Sundance - Cj ‘Fiery’ Obasi’s poetically realised film explores the importance of faith irrespective of fact, and the need for an openness.

Exclusive: Dekanalog has picked up North American rights to the Sundance competition title Mami Wata, the third feature film from Nigerian filmmaker C.J. “Fiery” Obasi.

Based on West African mermaid folklore and mythology, Mami Wata is set in the remote West African village of Iyi, where Mama Efe (Rita Edochie) acts as an intermediary between the people and the all-powerful water deity Mami Wata, the synopsis reads. However, doubt is sown amongst the people when a young boy is lost to a virus, with Efe’s devoted daughter Zinwe (Uzoamaka Aniunoh) and skeptical protégé Prisca (Evelyne Ily Juhen) at a crossroads. The film picked up the Special Jury Award for Best Cinematography at Sundance.

The pic was shot entirely in the Mono Department in Benin, West Africa. The principle cast features Evelyne Ily, Uzoamaka Aniunoh, Kelechi Udegbe, Rita Edochie, and Tough Bone. Further credits include cinematography by Brazillian Dp Lílis Soares,...

A folkloric African water deity is the titular focus of Mami Wata, the Sundance-premiering film from writer-director C.J. “Fiery” Obasi. The revered Mama Efe (Rita Edochie) serves as the conduit between the inhabitants of the seaside village of Iyi and the sacred water spirit, but a brewing period of civil unrest threatens to throw the entire village into extended tumult. When a young boy dies of a virus, neither human nor spirit can intervene to stop more bloodshed. Cinematographer Lílis Soares discusses the influences and approaches she utilized while shooting the sumptuous black and white film. See all responses to […]

The post “A Story That Plays With the Senses”: Dp Lílis Soares on Mami Wata first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

A folkloric African water deity is the titular focus of Mami Wata, the Sundance-premiering film from writer-director C.J. “Fiery” Obasi. The revered Mama Efe (Rita Edochie) serves as the conduit between the inhabitants of the seaside village of Iyi and the sacred water spirit, but a brewing period of civil unrest threatens to throw the entire village into extended tumult. When a young boy dies of a virus, neither human nor spirit can intervene to stop more bloodshed. Cinematographer Lílis Soares discusses the influences and approaches she utilized while shooting the sumptuous black and white film. See all responses to […]

The post “A Story That Plays With the Senses”: Dp Lílis Soares on Mami Wata first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

The seaside village of Iyi is the setting for C.J. “Fiery” Obasi’s mythical Mami Wata, which chronicles the fraught relationship between an all-powerful African water deity and the villagers who are currently embroiled in a period of unrest. The widely respected Mama Efe (Rita Edochie) acts as the intermediary between the titular water goddess Mami Wata and the villagers, but the death of a young boy further provokes the villagers toward an act of violence that no entity can control. Editor Nathan Delannoy discusses the process of cutting the gorgeous black and white film, including how he followed his gut […]

The post “This Is Filmmaking as an Artistic and Cultural Necessity”: Editor Nathan Delannoy on Mami Wata first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

The seaside village of Iyi is the setting for C.J. “Fiery” Obasi’s mythical Mami Wata, which chronicles the fraught relationship between an all-powerful African water deity and the villagers who are currently embroiled in a period of unrest. The widely respected Mama Efe (Rita Edochie) acts as the intermediary between the titular water goddess Mami Wata and the villagers, but the death of a young boy further provokes the villagers toward an act of violence that no entity can control. Editor Nathan Delannoy discusses the process of cutting the gorgeous black and white film, including how he followed his gut […]

The post “This Is Filmmaking as an Artistic and Cultural Necessity”: Editor Nathan Delannoy on Mami Wata first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

In C.J. “Fiery” Obasi’s Mami Wata, black becomes a canvas onto which the director paints a propulsive and vivid narrative. The shade takes on new roles and meanings in this feature about brewing ideological differences in a fictional West African village. Black shadows the waves crashing the shores as one character contemplates the fate of her people. Black sharpens the designs drawn in white paint on the faces of villagers. Black portends the sinister, the vengeful, the hopeful and the renewed faith swirling within an allegory for the slow creep of modernity.

The film takes place in Iyi, the village where Mami Wata, the water deity of West Africa and its diaspora cultures, has reigned via her intermediary Mama Efe (Rita Edochie) for decades. Obasi begins his wily, supernatural tale with generational tension: Mame Efe’s daughter Zinwe (Uzoamaka Aniunoh) storms out of their home after her mother...

Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Dekanalog releases the film in select theaters on Friday, September 29.

Mami Wata is a multifaceted figure whose personae is as diverse as the diaspora that venerates her. A patroness of beauty, money, and all things that ebb and flow, she’s sometimes depicted as being half-woman, half-fish. At other times, she’s shown with a gigantic serpent wrapped around her shoulders. She’s a relatively new deity who arose between the 15th and 20th centuries, a period when Africa became heavily involved in global trade. Her name comes from pidgin English, the language of commerce, and translates as “Mother Water.” She’s a water spirit, ruling over the seas that separated captive Africans from their homes and brought foreign people and influences to African shores, and she can be as benevolent or as cruel as the ocean itself.

Seven years before its Jan. 23 world premiere in Park City — the first-time that a homegrown Nigerian feature has scored a coveted slot in the World Cinema Dramatic competition at Sundance — C.J. Obasi’s “Mami Wata” began with a vision.

The director was sitting on a West African beach, in between projects and contemplating his next move. Suddenly, an apparition came to him: A mermaid standing on the ocean’s shore, beckoning to a mysterious young woman behind him.

“It was really vivid,” Obasi says. “It was in black and white. In the vision, the goddess’ eyes are red, but also very soft. There was a kindness to her eyes. When I came to, I said, Ok, so my next movie is ‘Mami Wata.’”

What followed was a personal and professional journey to understand that moment on the beach, and to breathe life into a movie about the titular mermaid-deity of West African folklore.