Zeb Ejiro: “I was Nollywood and Nollywood was me.”
The Sheik of Nollywood talks about the good old days, remaking Nollywood films and what's next for him.
Zeb Ejiro is making his comeback with the Filmone-backed Domitilla reboot. Nearly three decades after Domitila, the Story of a Prostitute, our screens are being blessed with Domitila, Ashawo no be Work. Ejiro was one of the founding fathers of Nollywood — he was there at the conception of the industry in the ‘90s. The veteran produced and directed classics, including Nneka the Pretty Serpent, Sakobi: The Snake Girl, and Good Bye Tomorrow, which were some of the biggest films of the late ’90s. (He is remaking Sakobi after Domitilla).
It was on this level of excellence he was crowned the Sheik of Nollywood by Encomium Magazine. When I asked him about this title and its meaning, he responded, “Thank you very much for that question,” giving off an admirable sense of someone who knows he is good and likes to talk about it. “There was this period in Nollywood where anything you see on screen was either produced and/or directed by Zeb Ejiro,” he says. “Any movie I made would be a hit. I was Nollywood, and Nollywood was me at that point in time.”
It has been several decades since Ejiro was at the pinnacle of Nollywood. The industry has since undergone several transformations; as he returns, he has noticed. “Today, there are more sophisticated equipment, more international standards in facilities,” he says about the industry’s evolution. “But when it comes to storyline, Nollywood of today is not doing well because the young people are so lazy that they don’t want to do research on that typical African story that you can tell to the world.”
Nollywood was more original then. It was more authentic.
With the level of dexterity he’s known for back in the day, one can only wonder if the Sheik of Nollywood still has his wits and is ready to blow our minds. Ejiro has something to say about that.
Do you think your title as the Sheik of Nollywood still holds water now?
It still holds water now because I don’t just make any movie. I feel the name is even stronger now because the Sheik only comes out once in a while. Once a Zeb Ejiro production is out, I hold the country hostage because people are not expecting anything less. They know that once the Sheik is out, it’s going to be a blockbuster. Just like what is happening with the Domitilla we are promoting now.
You and your brothers love filmmaking. How did the Ejiro brothers come into the film industry?
I’ll give credit to my mom. I will give glory to God but give credit to my mom. We were brought up in Equatorial Guinea, which used to have a strong cinema-going culture, and our house then was close to one of the biggest cinemas. My mother was addicted to the cinema, and she would take Chico and me all the time to watch movies. That is where we picked the interest.
When we came to Nigeria, I went into the movie industry. I got into the industry first when I created one of the longest television soap operas, Ripples, which ran for five years. Chico came to work for me. The same thing [happened] with my brother, Peter Red Ejiro, who came in later to join us. Today, we have a film school called the Film and Broadcast Academy in my town of Ozoro in Delta State.
Considering you were around in the late 90s and early 2000s, what do you make of Nollywood then and how do you see Nollywood now?
Nollywood was more original then. It was more authentic.
What do you mean?
What I’m trying to say is that there was a lot of originality when it came to content or storyline. The way our stories were told. The stories were so natural and typical that one could relate to them and that resonated perfectly with the people. That is why it was so popular out there. That is what I mean by originality.
Today, there are more sophisticated equipment and more international standards in facilities. This is where the Nollywood of today is better. But when it comes to the storyline, Nollywood of today is not doing well because the young people are so lazy; they don’t want to do research on that typical African story that you can tell to the world. Instead, they get an American story and try to adopt it in a very wrong way for Nigerians to see. There’s no new story in the world. But there is what you call African cinema, whereby you get an African story that resonates with the people and is told the African way but for the world to see.
What was it like making Domitilla in 1996 compared to making it now? How was prostitution like back then and how is it now?
If you have seen Domitilla, that of 1996, that’s exactly how prostitution was done then. It was not as high-class as it is today. So, in today’s Domitilla, you will see the digital age where prostitution has taken a different level. Today, there are those ladies that they jet from one country to another. Some are invited with an escort. These are the kinds of prostitution you see these days, which we have shown in the latest Domitilla.
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What intrigued you about the world of a prostitute to tell this story?
I like to observe my environment. I look at what is happening around me and tell my story based on what I see. I lived in Ajegunle for some time and saw this girl who went into prostitution not because she enjoyed it but to survive. [These people] love their family so much, and their little job cannot take care of the family, so they add prostitution to it.
If you look at the Domitilla character, She works in an office during the day, but at night she’s doing prostitution. She has to pay her younger ones’ school fees and buy drugs for her father. She was not enjoying it. That is what society does to you. Society was not very fair to this young girl [from Ajegunle] and I just thought I should highlight it and let the world know what is happening.
So it is a necessary evil for some people or all of them?
Yeah. If you look at it, you will find out that they came from good homes, but society was not fair to them, and that is what many people are going through today. If you watch this recent one, you will find it’s a similar theme but on a different pedestal.
Do you consider prostitution a means of livelihood or social vice?
My general view on prostitution is that an African lady should not hawk herself. That is my view. That is not our culture. But society has put us in a very vulnerable position that we can’t help it, and that is why you find out that a lot of ladies are into prostitution.
Before I did the new Domitilla, I went to Ikeja and sat with a few [prostitutes]. I found out that they don’t enjoy what they’re doing. I engaged one of them in a conversation and she told me things about that life. She told me she has a daughter and she leaves the child every night to do what she’s doing. I really felt for her. I told her I would like her to come into the acting industry and that someday she’d forget what she was doing. I took her number. I kept calling to help her come into the movie industry but it didn’t work.
Each time I do this Domitilla story, you find out that I do it to discourage women and girls from going into prostitution. If you watched the first one, the chief died in a hotel room at the end and Domitilla was arrested. The other girls quit prostitution. Judith got a business running, and Anita got married to her boyfriend. So, I usually create happy endings for them.
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Yes, you treated their characters with empathy and approached them respectfully instead of judging them.
I don’t judge them because I know that If you give them an opportunity and it’s good, they’ll take it. Do you know what it means to be under different men every night? That’s torture! Nobody wants to do that. I feel for them and want those watching to see them as human beings. No matter who they are, respect them. Don’t condemn them. Help them, whichever way you can, to leave what they are doing. That is my position. I don’t judge them at all.
What do you think about the remaking of old Nollywood films?
It is good. It’s happening all over the world — an example is Lion King. The thing is that most of the remakes we have made here, most of them have failed. Some have done it well. I’ve done two remakes. Sakobi and Domitilla. Sakobi will be released after Domitilla.
What do you think about the remake given to your 1994 Nneka, the Pretty Serpent?
I don’t want to talk about that because I was not part of the remake, but I think they did well. My only problem is that it became more of an action movie instead of a mystical movie. The Nneka girl became a fighter and all that. I wouldn’t have taken that route if I was doing the remake. That’s the only problem I have with it.
He is literally spitting facts. Nollywood of today has lost its originality, sadly. Thank you so much for not being judgmental of prostitutes. If everyone were like you, Nigeria would have been a better place.