Just under a couple of weeks ago I began filming my next feature in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil titled LA PYRAMIDE - a Nigeria, UK, Brazil, US, Columbia, Senegal co-production set in Brazil 🇧🇷, New Orleans, Louisiana 🇺🇸 and Senegal 🇸🇳. And as I embark on this mystical diaspora voyage, I would like to thank my international talented team, my family and all lovers of cinema. This is my most ambitious, yet most personal project thus far. A new canvas, with a kaleidoscope of possibilities. A new vision. Vive le cinéma! Viva o cinema!
Follow @lapyramidemovie for updates.
Guys,
MAMI WATA has just been nominated for Best International Film for the 2024 Independent Spirit Awards!
Is this really happening???
Thank you @filmindependent Jury…You’ve changed history with this one! 🇳🇬
Announcement!! @MorganFreeman and I will be producing a feature film with director C.J. Obasi @fierycj through a new African-Korean residency program cooked up by @Flix_Oven . Big thank you to Ozi Menakaya @ozman927 ! Looking forward to telling this unique story that will bridge the divide between cultures.
#RevelationsEntertainment
Mami Wata (2023) dir. C.J. ‘Fiery’ Obasi
Set in the seaside village of Iyi, Mami Wata unfolds within a matriarchal community devoted to a powerful water deity associated with wealth, health, and protection. When a ritual fails and a child dies, long-suppressed doubts rise to the surface. Faith fractures, authority is questioned, and the arrival of a mysterious outsider pushes the village toward conflict. At its heart, the film explores belief, inheritance, power, and the cost of resisting or embracing change.
Shot entirely in striking black and white, the film creates an atmosphere of wonder and unease from its opening image of the ocean at night. C.J. Obasi lingers on images longer than expected, unsettling rhythm and perception. High-contrast lighting, sculptural compositions, and deliberate blocking transform faces, bodies, and landscapes into symbols, giving the film a dreamlike, trancelike intensity.
Rather than explaining its mythology or psychology, the film trusts images, gestures, and sound. Dialogue in pidgin English, minimal exposition, and carefully controlled performances allow meaning to emerge intuitively. The visual language bridges past and present, tradition and modernity, echoing influences from art-house cinema while maintaining a singular, confident voice.
Mami Wata premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where cinematographer Lílis Soares won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Cinematography. Critically acclaimed upon release, the film was praised for its hypnotic power and bold formal control, earning recognition as one of the most visually distinctive African films of recent years.
Production Companies
Fiery Film Company
Ifind Pictures
PalmWine Media (in association with)
Guguru Studios (in association with)
Openvizor (in association with)
#MamiWata #CJObasi #AfricanCinema #ArtHouseCinema #cinemamonamour
Locarno Film Festival / Open Doors • Piazza Grande Presentation featuring filmmaker, C.J. "Fiery" Obasi, DG, Swiss Agency for Development and Corporation, Patricia Danzi, Open Doors Head, Zsuzsi Bánkuti and Festival Artistic Director, Giona A. Nazzaro.
