Here's the trailer for a 20-minute short film titled, Walking At Dawn, from writer/director Onyinye Egenti.
We rarely post trailers of short films, unless the immediately grab our attention, or we've seen them, and were impressed. The latter is the case with Onyinye's film, which she sent me a private link to and I watched this morning.
Unfortunately, I can't share the full short film just yet, since it oly recently made its debut on the film festival circuit, screening at the LUCAS International Children's Film Festival in August (in Frankfurt, Germany), and will next screening at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival in November, and after that, at the Grand OFF World Film Festival in Warsaw, in December.
It was also shortlisted for a Student Academy Award.
Eventually, when it's done touring the film festival circuit, as most filmmakers do, I'm sure Onyinye, who's Nigerian, and currently based in London, will make it available online for all to see.
It's a beautifully-shot, engaging drama on religious tolerance, set in Northern Nigeria in the 1960s; specifically, it centers on an 11 year old Muslim boy who is forced to run away in the middle of the night to "save" his 11 year old Christian friend from a religious war neither of them understands.
The war in question is of course the Nigerian-Biafran War (July 1967 – January 1970) – a conflict caused by the attempted secession of the southeastern provinces of Nigeria as the self-proclaimed Republic of Biafra, which was the result of economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions.
Check out the trailer below for a glimpse of what to expect.
I'll be chatting with Onyinye soon, about the short film, and the feature film she's developing, which is based on the short film. I'll return with a longer report after.
But she's definitely one to have your watch-lists; I'm sure we'll be talking about her in the future.
'Waking at Dawn' – The Trailer – Longlisted to run in competition at the 39th Student Academy Awards 2012. from Onyinye Egenti on Vimeo.
