Dan Akinlolu is a Nigerian-born, UK based filmmaker whose recent film “WAJA” has been accepted by the Film Festival Circuit. The film explores the rampant narratives around mental health and the dynamics of social content that call into question matters surrounding the understanding of depression, causes, support structure, and most importantly, what form of treatment as a mental health treatment.
The film’s title “WAJA” emanates from the Yoruba word or statement -“Oba Wo Aja” which means – “the king has passed on or the king is dead”. The concept is to fuse cultural narratives with contemporary issues that expound the understanding of belief systems- religion, culture, or science. The project is not routing for a particular solution to social challenges of mental health but rather to reinforce the reality that humanity needed each other to get along.
The film’s narrative follows Duro Bantefa, a professional accountant living in Johannesburg with his South African wife Emily Streicher. Duro lost his job because of his mental health condition. He became depressed and suicidal. Duro hallucinates about the presence of a wandering ghost king who demands that he must commit suicide to fulfill his traditional role as “Abobaku”.
Emily is caught in a battle of spiritual and cultural survival to save her marriage. She believes in professional help and medical treatment to keep Duro sane and would do anything to protect him from his overzealous Christian Mother-In-Law. Duro’s mother – Madam Remi Bantefa disagrees. She believes Duro is under a spiritual attack from refusing his father’s traditional and cultural ritual from the lineage of Abobaku (those who are chosen and must be buried alive when a king dies). She wants him exorcised from the demons through Prophet David Shabalala. Torn between science and culture, Duro must choose the path that tells the truth about his birth.
The film project is purely a creative expression without any intent to be accurate. It plays around efficient solutions to mental health challenges by creating characters that have strong and different belief systems – Religion, Science, and Culture. The idea of a dead and buried but restless king tormenting Duro – the lead character through hallucination is to create an opportunity for visual interpretation or expression for unfulfilled dreams and ambition that bound a soul to his past dreams and memory. It is a wake-up call to remind him of his birth, even though they appeared in the form of a nightmare and hallucination.
Dan Akinlolu’s film “WAJA” is a powerful exploration of mental health and the dynamics of cultural and spiritual beliefs surrounding mental health treatment. The film promises to be a thought-provoking and enlightening experience for its viewers.
Watch the trailer below
