Phyllis (2011)

Phyllis

Phyllis is a moving and atmospheric portrait of a ‘psychic’ vampire, a woman obsessed with synthetic Nollywood dramas, that lives alone in Lagos, Nigeria. The central idea of this short experimental film is the practise and significance of wig-wearing in Nollywood film; a practise the director has invested with deeper psychological as well as science-fiction layers. Underpinning this central idea however is a critique of the unforgiving treatment of single women in Nollywood and Nigeria. The film is an example of what the director, Zina Saro-Wiwa, has termed “alt-Nollywood”, a genre that plays with and reworks certain narrative, stylistic and visual conventions of Nollywood. Phyllis explores the gothic possibilities of the Nollywood aesthetic creating a new kind of low-budget atmospheric film that is very much of Nollywood and yet subverts the genre. Using Nollywood to subvert Nollywood.

Phyllis

Casting arrow_drop_down

Olushola Adeyinka
Olushola Adeyinka
as Phyllis
Gboyega Babajide
Gboyega Babajide
as Man on Staircase
Opeyemi Fajemirokun
Opeyemi Fajemirokun
as Victim

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Zina Saro-Wiwa
Zina Saro-Wiwa
Director
Ben Grinberg
Ben Grinberg
Editor
Zina Saro-Wiwa
Zina Saro-Wiwa
Producer
Opeyemi Fajemirokun
Opeyemi Fajemirokun
Associate Producer
Sese Somolu
Sese Somolu
Producer
Zina Saro-Wiwa
Zina Saro-Wiwa
Writer
Zina Saro-Wiwa
Zina Saro-Wiwa
Director of Photography

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