Elesin Oba, The King's Horseman is a 2022 Yoruba historical drama film directed by Biyi Bandele based on Wole Soyinka's Death and the King's Horseman, a stage play he wrote while in Cambridge, where he was a fellow at Churchill College during his political exile from Nigeria, and is based on a real incident that took place in Yorubaland during British Colonial rule. The screenplay was translated into Yorùbá and the film subsequently subtitled into English by Nigerian linguist Kola Tubosun, a decision described as "one of [the film's] more ticklish conceits" and “the only way to make the film immediately accessible to a global audience.” The film is a co-production between Netflix and Ebonylife TV Studio. The movie premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on 9 September 2022, the first Yoruba-language film to premiere at TIFF, and was released in Nigerian cinemas on 28 October 2022 followed by a Netflix release on 4 November.
It is Soyinka's first work to be made into a motion picture since the 1970s film Kongi's Harvest directed by Ossie Davies.
The film is set in the 1940s Oyo Town in southwestern Nigeria. The king has just died, and as tradition demands Elesin Oba, the King's horseman, must perform ritual suicide in order to join his deceased king in the afterlife so that the king may gain unhindered passage into the land of the gods, thus preventing calamity from befalling the community. Elesin Oba's sexual appetites cause him to shirk in his duty, which leads to a lethal confrontation with the British and with devastating consequences. When the horseman is unable to fulfill his final obligation to the king, his ghost wanders the earth, spelling calamity for the land and its people
The film stars Odunlade Adekola as the titular character, with Shaffy Bello, Brymo, Deyemi Okanlawon, Omowunmi Dada, Jide Kosoko, Langley Kirkwood, Joke Silva amongst others in supporting roles. Read More.
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