The last Work Of Biyi Bandele, “Elesin Oba, The King’s Horseman,” premieres at Toronto Film Festival

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The much-anticipated adaptation of Wole Soyinka’s book, “Death and the King’s Horseman,” premieres at the Toronto Film Festival as “Elesin Oba, The King’s Horseman.” The film was directed by Biyi Bandele before his demise, as reported by Nollywood Times.

“Elesin Oba, The King’s Horseman,” the movie adaptation was also based on Nigerian historical event of 1943.

Set in the Oyo Empire, the king’s horseman, according to tradition, is to perform the ritual suicide, following the dead king to the afterlife. Distracted by pleasures of the flesh, leading to a deadly clash with the British authorities and forcing his spirit to roam the earth, spelling doom for the land and its people.

The Netflix film which premiered on the platform on September 10 was directed by Biyi Bandele, who recently passed on; many have different things to say about the director and his last work.

While speaking to a media source about his passing, TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey said of his work, “Biyi worked with such ease in the way and manner that he went about directing. We will miss that … and how he was able to understand the Yoruba culture, our traditions, those nuances that are truly Nigerian.”

Recall that veteran actor Jide Kosoko said Bandele’s last movie will be a befitting send-forth for the late filmmaker. He was talking about “Elesin Oba.”

In Bandele’s director’s note, it is said that the late director wrote of the original text by Wole Soyinka, “Death and the King’s Horseman,” to be “the most deeply and fundamentally Yoruba of all Soyinka’s plays,” so much so that translating it from English was “the only way to make the film immediately accessible to a global audience.”

Source: guardian.ng

#Biyi Bandele

#Death And The King’s Horseman

#Elesin Oba

#The King’s Horseman

#Wole Soyinka