Flying the Naija flag: Nollywood Week in Paris!!!

First ever Nollywood Week in Paris is due to take place right in the heart of the French capital city at the end of this month (30th May to 2nd June '13)



According to the event organizers' official website:

NollywoodWeek Paris is an annual event dedicated to showcasing the best of Nollywood to a French audience in order to foster distribution opportunities in this untapped market and 2013 marks its first edition.

The event starts on Thursday May 30th with an Opening night launch party and ends Sunday June 2nd 2013 with a Closing ceremony featuring the film voted best feature by the public.

NollywoodWeek will take place in the heart of Paris at L’Arlequin Theatre, right between the Latin Quarter and Montparnarsse. During the course of the festival, seven of the best feature length films by Nigerian directors will be screened throughout each day and open for public voting. In addition to the film screenings, there will be a marketplace, a panel discussion, and special events taking place.

The seven films selected to screen this year are:

1. Phone Swap by Kunle Afolayan
2. Maami by Tunde Kelani
3. Inalé by Jeta Amata & Keke Bongos
4. Tango with Me by Mahmood Ali-Balogun
5. Ijé by Chineze Anyaene
6. Man on Ground by Akin Omotoso
7. Last Flight to Abuja by Obi Emelonye

This year, Nollywood turns 21. Now is the perfect time to shift gears away from its perception of low-quality films and move towards bringing recognition to the most influential story-teller in Africa. The Nigerian film industry has gone beyond national borders obtaining worldwide recognition. Now, it will become known to the 62 million inhabitants of France, the birthplace of cinema.

http://www.nollywoodweek.com/the-festival/

Baby Owl located some trailers of the films to be screened:

INALÉ

Inale is the beautiful daughter of the great King Oche, of the Idoma people in Idomaland, Nigeria. Her beloved Odeh must win the wrestling tournament to win her hand in marriage. A stranger appears, that challenges not only the tradition of the village but the strength of Odeh and Inale’s true love.



MAAMI

A single mother and her young son are desperately poor. Gifted with a living heart, enterprising spirit and brave soul, she is the center of her son’s world, until he longs for the father he has never known – a man with a terrible secret.





MAN ON GROUND

Ade and Femi are expatriate Nigerian brothers. Ade is a successful banker in London, while Femi, once a political dissident in his home country, escaped to South Africa living in refugee tenements and working menial jobs. The brothers have not only been physically estranged; their relationship is riddled with unspoken betrayal, guilt and scorn, which they have carried since the early days of their youth. During a short visit to Johannesburg, Ade discovers that his brother has been missing for a week. He sets out to investigate Femi’s mysterious disappearance, reconstructing the pieces of his everyday life and the cruel hardships he endured just to survive. A riot erupts while Ade is visiting Femi’s former boss in one of the townships where he is forced to take shelter. The mounting violence outside seeps into their exchanges and, eventually, prompts an explosion of revelation.




IJÉ (THE JOURNEY)

When Anya, the eldest of the two, vows to chase her dreams of glamour in the Hollywood Hills, her younger sister, Chioma, warns her of the dark side of the American Dream. Now, years later, and in a world away from the life she knew, Anya is charged with the murder of three men, one of them her powerful husband. Chioma travels from Nigeria to Los Angeles and, with the help of a young, unproven attorney, discovers that the dark secret her sister wants to keep hidden might be the only thing that can win her freedom.


PHONE SWAP

Akin and Mary accidentally bump into each other and mistakenly swap their identical phones, leading to a destination mix up. Akin is now at Mary’s destination and visa versa which is where they discover that their phones were swapped. Still determined to make each of their travel’s a success, each must carry out the other’s mission which soon proves to not be an easy task! The result? Hilarious situations and unexpected outcomes.




TANGO WITH ME
Lola and Uzo are the perfect couple, their newly married life in front of them. All is well until the happiest day of their lives became the worst. This event leads the couple on a journey of self discovery.



LAST FLIGHT TO ABUJA

Based on true events. A set of everyday Nigerian travelers board the last Flamingo Airways flight scheduled to fly from Lagos to Abuja on a fateful Friday night in 2006. The plane cruises at 30,000 feet on schedule but like a bolt out of the blue, through a mixture of human error and technical failure, the plane rapidly spirals towards a disastrous end. As the pilots try to get a handle on the situation, a series of flashbacks unravel the twists, turns and leaps of fate that put each passenger on the fateful flight. Young lovers, an elderly couple, a corporate party, a sportsman on the threshold of greatness; all contemplating the final moments of their lives. All… except one.