Nollywood

Main article: Nigeria

Films in Nigeria began to be made from the 1920s. Colonist filmmakers created films for the country's domestic market. They were shown in mobile cinemas.

After independence in 1960, this business expanded rapidly, and standard cinemas appeared at that time.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, film production increased, especially in Western Nigeria.

In 1980, the horror film "Evil Meeting" was directed by Jimi Odumosu, it became the first film created for display on television and videotapes.

The cinema of Nigeria received its rapid development in the 1990s and especially in the 2000s.

The proliferation of video and digital technology in the early 1990s led to a revolution in African cinema. In Nigeria, as an alternative to aesthetic didactic francophone cinema, which has entered a certain ideological impasse, they begin to shoot entertainment films with low budgets (1-25 thousand dollars per film).

In the 2000s, for films shot according to such a model, a common collective name was invented - "Nollywood" as an ironic contrast to both Hollywood and Indian Bollywood, despite the fact that no single studio ever existed.

Nollywood is not just Nigerian cinema. Often, Ghanaian cinema is produced in collaboration with Nigerian directors. In addition, the concept of Nollywood also includes Kannywood, or house-language cinema. This name is associated with the city of Kano, where they began to make films exclusively in the Hausa language. But the most popular is cinema in the Yoruba language, English is in second place. Films are also shot in Igbo, Itsekiri, Edo, Efik, Ijo, Urhobo and the other 300 languages ​ ​ of the peoples of Nigeria.

In the early 2000s, the film was shot and edited in a few days, and anyone could be the director. By the 2010s, the situation had improved, the quality of shooting and budget growth came along with the growing popularity of cinemas.

The subjects of Nigerian cinema often tell about the life of the African diaspora outside the continent. But most often, directors like to shoot in Lagos, Enugu, Abuja and Asaba.

The predominant are romantic films, drama, comedy and mysticism. The plots unfold around revenge, betrayal, hatred, politics. Writers resort to supernatural and religious themes, including black magic and the clash of modern religion with traditional beliefs.

For 2019, Nollywood is a huge and very fruitful industry: the country releases about 200 films a month and has an income of $250 million from them. Thanks to such activity, Nollywood became the second largest film industry in the world in terms of the number of annual premieres, bypassing the United States and second only to Bollywood.

At this time, Nollywood has its own Actors Guild. They influence culture in many African countries. Nigeria's film industry accounts for 1.4% of the country's economy.

Movies

1992: "Life in Bondage" by Chris Obi Rapu

A classic of the genre and at the same time the first film to become super popular and achieve impressive success is Living in Bondage (1992) by Nigerian director Chris Obi Rapu and producer Kenneth Nnebuye. The protagonist, Lagos-based urban proletarian Andy Okeke, is eager to break into the world of wealth and luxury. Through one of his old buddies, who lives on a grand scale, he goes to the mafia, led by Chief Omego, who has made a fortune in the human organ trade.

A secret community practicing a pseudo-Satanic cult agrees to accept Andy, but he must affirm loyalty and sacrifice Merith's spouse. Trying to cheat, Andy slams an accidental sex worker, but the deception is revealed, and after that he faces an even more difficult choice - either to fulfill the demands of Chief Omego from the second time, or to die himself.

Agreeing to sacrifice his wife, Andy becomes unusually rich. Millions of contracts pass through his hands, he can allow any whim, but this does not bring him happiness. The spirit of Merith regularly is to ruin Andy's personal life, disrupt the wedding, the ceremony of initiation into the chiefs. In the end, he finds himself on the street in a state close to insanity, and the millionaire is saved by the very woman who was once almost sacrificed.