The Lost Okoroshi

Nigeria • 2019

The Lost Okoroshi follows Raymond (Seun Ajayi), a security guard (and something of a layabout) whose main preoccupations are checking out women and figuring out how to escape the bustle of Lagos in favor of the more relaxed countryside. Despite, or maybe because of, his seeming "average-ness", he's beset by surreal dreams where he's haunted by a traditional Okoroshi masquerade (ancestral spirit). One morning, our protagonist wakes up to discover he's been transformed into a purple spirit. Having lost his voice, he must navigate Lagos in this new form. His journey takes him across the society, to the club, and even into the world of a secret society bent on claiming the masquerade as their own.

In his second film, Abba T. Makama plays with different influences, from Nollywood to North American music videos, and the result is a campy, visually eclectic film unlike any being produced by his contemporaries. But style never trumps substance, as beneath the formal play, Makama is probing pressing questions about modernity and masculinity that, when the laughter subsides, aren’t easily answered.

Runtime
Language
Subtitles
Color
Format
Sound

94 minutes
Ibo, English
English
Color
1.33:1
5.1

Abba T. Makama
Africa Ukoh
Seun Ajayi, Judith Audu, Tope Tedela

Director & writer
Co-writer
Starring

"Makama’s vivacious sense of humour brings an invigorating gonzo style to The Lost Okoroshi’s incongruous mash-up of cultural influence, its use pop music, vibrant colours and cinematic visual effects."

Christopher Machell
CineVue
"Relentlessly surprising, The Lost Okoroshi smashes together bits of B-movie, slapstick, mumblecore, fable and surrealism in stark vignettes enlivened by a funky, synth-heavy soundtrack. Makama’s schizophrenic style is designed to provoke as much as to entertain. But at the heart of his madcap caper is a classic theme of postcolonial cinema: the battle between tradition and capitalist modernity, whose victims — society’s most vulnerable — are served neither by earthly powers nor gods."

Devika Girish
The New York Times
"The Lost Okoroshi takes audiences on a trippy ride into the clash between traditional and contemporary cultures in modern day Lagos...A cool soundtrack veers from electronic mood music to contemporary Afrobeat, adding depth to the surreal feel of the film....Much of the humor comes from Makama's finely developed sense of the ridiculous, along with a sly satire, with the realistic elements to add the darker edge."

Anya Wassengerg
Okay Africa