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Saturday 2 August 2014

La Femme Anjola: who gets to kiss Rita Dominic?


“Lead male xter is about 33 years old, nicely toned body but not so muscular. He is handsome but not pretty. He plays the saxophone … for those interested, you have about 30 days to get ready for a closed audition. Learn to play the sax or look good faking it”

The above words is gotten from the tweeter page of ‘La Femme Anjola’, a new movie in the works, from the stables of The Audrey Silva Company, the movie outfit co-owned by the critical acclaim no-nonsense film director Mildred Okwo, and the multiple award-winning Nollywood screen diva Rita Dominic.

Last year they released The Meeting, a romantic-comedy whose narrative is quite different from anything seen before in Nollywood. And in The Meeting, we saw a different side of Rita Dominic as Clara Ikemba, an unattractive, powerful and peppery tempered secretary to a government minister for which she has won countless awards.

Well, this article isn’t about The Meeting or Rita Dominic. It is about her Cinderella men. I mean the actor who fits the description above that would be her love interest in the soon-to-hit-the-set movie ‘La Femme Anjola’

I gathered that the audition – which was a strictly by invitation event – had in attendance some of the finest and budding talents in Nollywood.

When the pictures of the nine shortlisted candidates were released on the Instagram page of the director, I couldn’t agree more with her that the right actors had been chosen and they all deserved to be cast as Dejare, the man who would kiss Rita Dominic in the experimental film noir.

The list was further pruned down to three, months after, and I do not envy the casting director whose job it was to decide who deserves a better shot at playing Dejare or not, but I can categorically tell you that the finalist each deserves it more than their competition. Okay, let’s meet them:

Blossom Chukwujekwu:  Do you remember that famous and now cliché question “where have you been all these time?” we like to ask when we meet someone spectacular. Yes, it is when we are introduced to people like Blossom that this question comes to mind. I watched him spark up the screen in an almost drab movie I reviewed on NR where he played a minor role, and I had to admit the brother is a very promising talent. Then I saw him upping his game in ‘Flower Girl’ and ‘Finding Mercy’, and just nodded and said ‘he has finally been discovered’, and then I watched ‘Knocking On Heaven’s Door’ and I am still looking for the word to describe his performance in it.


Seun Ajayi: The first time I watched this dude in anything was in the short movie ‘All Sorts of Trouble’ by Imoh Umoren. The way his face kept twitching from one expression to another, I just knew this guy must have a deep root in acting, and then I discovered later he is a graduate of Theatre Arts and an alumnus of the now defunct AMBO Reality Show. Also, I hear he is a model actor or the ‘IT’ actor as others would prefer to call him, but he is more at home on stage which is the reason why his body of works on the screen is limited, but that is fast changing as he can now be seen as a regular on Gidi Up, and as the brilliant investigator in the award-winning short film ‘Crimson’


Shawn Faqua: I have only seen Shawn in two movies, ‘Four Crooks and a Rookie’ and ‘Lagos Cougar.’ I didn’t think too much of his performance in the former other than another fine boy given a role to play in a movie, but the latter got me sitting up and taking him very seriously as an actor to watch out for, and his role interpretation in it even earned him a nomination in the 2014 edition of the AMAA’s in the Best Young/Promising Actor category.


Having watched these guys proven themselves in different movies, I can only wish them well and say ‘may the best man win the role’, as I look forward to seeing another great movie.

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