I chose to shoot this in one take to create an immersive scene where tension is carried through performance, choreography, and camera. This scene holds the film’s central question: how something can be defended as love, and still leave irreversible damage.
The Day The Heart Died.
The result is two actors delivering a masterful performance.
#film #nollywood #art #endfgm
And the winner of Best Short Film… The Day the Heart Died, directed by @russelloru
A powerful reflection on a silence too many have learned to live with female genital mutilation.
Through stillness and subtlety, the film gives voice to what is often unspoken, allowing truth to linger where words cannot.
Thank you for sharing this insightful story with AFRIFF and the world at large!!
#AFRIFF2025 #AFCM2025 #BrazilMeetsAfrica #FilmBusiness #CreativeEconomy #MadeInAfrica
Winning Best Short Film at the Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF) for The Day the Heart has been a euphoric experience.
When I set out to make this film, I wanted to tell a true story about female genital mutilation, one that was close to home and needed to be told.
This moment is a reminder that human stories matter. That our voices are important. That cinema can be a bridge between silence and understanding.
My heartfelt gratitude to the amazing cast and crew who made this possible.
Thank you to @afriff for creating a platform where storytellers like myself can be heard, and for celebrating films that dare to tell difficult truths.
To all the filmmakers out there, keep showing up, keep creating, keep telling stories that move hearts.
CAST
@wilsimben@thetosinadeyemi@pammyayo@ettajomaria
#AFRIFF2025 #TheDayTheHeartDied #afriff #film #filmfestivals #nollywood #endfgm
Excited to announce our film “The Day The Heart Died” would be having its world premiere at Afriff. A powerful and poetic exploration of Female Genital Mutilation and its devastating impact on families and communities.
#afriff #film #filmfestivals
I had a very candid discussion with @russelloru for @the.nollywoodreporter about his short film The Day the Heart Died, how it confronts the silence surrounding FGM in Nigerian households and brings intimate truths into the light.
Read more by clicking on the link in my bio x stories.
The Day the Heart Died was born from the quiet ache of childhood, of wide eyes trying to make sense of a world wrapped in tradition and shadow.
So much of that world has been eroded by education and development, yet these practices remain largely unchanged and the wounds, unhealed.
This film is a cry. It is our voices added to the rising chorus against the silence surrounding female genital mutilation. It must end. It must.
P.S. These images are not imagined. They belong to a five-year-old finding his place in early 2000’s Nigeria.
I’m super deeply grateful to @wilsimben@thetosinadeyemi@officialpamilerin for breathing life into this story with such powerful performances and to @ettajomaria for a beautifully delivered narration.
Thank you @captain_abbey1 & @mysticumstudio for birthing this vision. @okwongfadamana for painting this picture.
Endless thanks to @tosinjones_gidi@itz_lovethisa@mee_works23@dannycare213@ebiokpoikemike for their indelible contributions.
Special thanks to @yeancar_posh for being the ultimate support system from pre to post production.
#filmfest #nollywood #film #art
Ewo is coming to the Cinema!
Being deeply immersed in the process that brought this masterpiece to life is an experience that words can hardly capture.
It’s been years of script development and countless drafts and I couldn’t be more excited for what’s about to unfold.
Directed by @ekenemekwunye
Produced by @fuchi_wattz@saidibalogun
#cinema #nollywood #film
POSTCARDS FROM AFRIFF đź’Ś
Since November started, this line from this Urdu poem has played in my mind, YOU HAVE OTHER SKIES STRETCHING BEFORE YOU…
It is from a poem by Allama Iqbal SB and wanted to share it. “Don’t be content with the world of smell and colour, other gardens are there, other nests are too. What’s the worry if one nest is lost? There are other places to sigh and cry for.You’re an eagle, flight is your vocation, you’ve other skies stretching before you”
#afriff #filmmaker #art #photography
For better or worse, this will always be one of my favorite films…
My fascination with the works of Terrence Malick and Andrei Tarkovsky had drawn me toward transcendental cinema, which I found both liberating and uninhibited. I wanted to create a film that explored the existential questions that had long occupied my thoughts. This deep exploration emerged as The Waiting Song, a metaphor for our waiting moments on earth. I am incredibly excited and deeply grateful to have our film included in this year’s Afriff program, and I eagerly anticipate the opportunity to share this beautiful film with an audience.
CAST
@ettajomaria@brutus_theactor@amaka_nwonye
CREW
DP - @okwongfadamana
AD - @tosinjones_gidi
Editor - @gnext_filmworks
Colorist - @wolexx
Makeup - @monadsnchrom
Foley/Final mix - @mostickx
#afriff
#nollywood
#filmfestival
#art
#life
