Cinema
The Mask
Eddie Ugbomah · 1979
Synopsis
Obi is Nigerian and he is tired of waiting. The ivory mask taken from Benin City by the British in 1897 sits in a display case in London, and official requests have come to nothing. He decides to go and take it back himself, gets into the museum and prepares his move, among the guards, the display cases and the men who have been following him since his arrival in England.
Context
Its author, who produced and distributed alone, had lived fifteen years in London and appeared in a few English roles, including a James Bond; he plays the lead role here, and critics have compared his character to the British agent. The film answers the refusal made to the country during the 1977 festival, the British judging the ivories too fragile to be returned. It is the only one of his films shot in thirty-five millimetre, and it attracted the attention of the two governments.
Who it is for
In English. It helps to know that the British punitive expedition of 1897 carried off thousands of objects from Benin City, and that the mask in question served as the emblem of the 1977 Lagos festival.
Prizes and reception
A rare example, in the African cinema of those years, of a fiction film about the restitution of looted objects, a subject that became public thirty years later.