Challenges of Making ‘The Milkmaid’ in Hausa- Desmond Ovbiagele

Although an indigene of Edo State, this filmmaker chose to make his new film, The Milkmaid in Hausa. And just as the film shone when nominations for the 2020 edition of the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) was released, the film, inspired by the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East of Nigeria got selected by the Nigerian Oscars Selection Committee (NOSC) as the country’s entry for the International Feature Film category of the 2021 Academy Awards.

In this interview with eelive.ng, Desmond Ovbiagele, producer and director of the film, talks about the inspiration behind the movie, the challenges and AMAA nominations among other things.

Congratulations on the Academy Awards entry and AMAA nominations for yourself and your film, Milk Maid. What really drove you to go all the way across the country to tell a story? What inspired you?

I’m attracted to stories that have social relevance. I feel the filmmaking process is so adverse. It’s so time-consuming and it is also powerful as well that to commit such resources to an endeavour; it has to be an endeavour that is worthwhile and has a life beyond you. I was looking for a socially relevant story. And what was prevalent in the media at that time were spate of suicide bombing going on in the North-east. Seeing pictures of suicide bombers who were falling; with their members disfigured. It was very graphic and it made an impression on me.

What was going on in society was something already being talked about in the mainstream media. But I felt it hadn’t been adequately covered and addressed through the medium of film. So, I felt that I wanted to at least express my thoughts and my opinions in terms of what was going on. And then hopefully those thoughts and opinions will be authentic and legitimate. So that inspired the story of Milkmaid which was about two Fulani sisters.

The idea came from the iconic image at the back of the Nigeria ten Naira note. The story was a creative imagining of what will happen to those characters if they were caught up in the insurgency situation.

Giving the setting of the story, being the North-east; I guess one could have shot the story somewhere more convenient logistically. Maybe somewhere in the South but coincidentally I saw some pictures of Taraba State, of the landscape there. I literally didn’t believe it was in Nigeria. I never heard of anywhere in Nigeria that looked that beautiful. So I went out to take a look for myself, to see if that place was actually in Nigeria, particularly the Mambilla Plateau.

I was captivated and blown away with what I considered to be a hidden treasure right in our backyard in the country. Didn’t quite seem to be as half the notoriety I would have expected such a beautiful place in our country to have. I was motivated to have the opportunity to present that typography, that landscape through the platform of our film. That certainly inspired me to take our film all the way across the Northern-eastern part of our country to tell the story.

What was the experience like researching and shooting this film, any form of culture shock? How did the people receive you? Were there new revelations about the insurgency and what brought about it?

Researching the story was a very comprehensive process. It was my responsibility as the storyteller to do as much research as I could to ensure that the story I was telling was authentic, legitimate and will do justice to the characters in the story. And also to the nature of the story. I emerged myself in quite a bit of research reading over three hundred articles on the insurgency situation just to get a thorough grounding on the mindset, perception, motivations and the experiences of the characters mostly affected and involved in the conflict.

Fortunately, because it was such a topical story, there was a wealth of content and information that was available. As long as one has the will to just digest, absolve and process it all which I felt I had to do and was able to do. But it was quite rewarding in terms of a story, a narrative story coming out of that process. That’s where the story of Milkmaid came from; a lot of it was actually based on real life experiences that I read about in the research.

In terms of shooting the film, no doubt it was logically quite challenging to get cast and crew and heavy equipment all the way across the country to Taraba state to shoot.

We also had to shoot in the larger part of the raining season which was extremely destructive to the production in terms of continuity and logistics, having to wait out heavy rain storms and storm sounds. Because our story had such a significant exterior components to it, we were certainly at the mercy of the elements several times and that prolonged our shooting schedule over there.

The people were great; we had a couple of auditions which generated an overwhelming proportion of actors and actresses in the story. It was quite a revelation to discover that there were such brilliant but unheralded talents available in Nigeria, without having taken production there, nobody will ever know that, that quality of talent was available in the country.

Obviously, we have the more established names in Nollywood than in Kannywood but Taraba state is not necessarily very prominent on the radar of filmmaking in Nigeria.

But having gone there, I was so blown away not just by the talents but the enthusiasm. They were so enthusiastic to act in the production. And clearly that was the first time a production of such magnitude will take place. They have their local filmmaking industry there; but this was the first time a production of that magnitude was being brought to the state. It attracted so much attention, so much excitement and goodwill. It was a pleasant experience in that respect shooting in Taraba state.

On the regulation of insurgency, I think what the research proved time and time again, was that there’s not much of a thick line between the perpetrators and the victims themselves. Because several times the perpetrators started out as victims; along the line they were indoctrinated and brainwashed and they become perpetrators themselves.

It wasn’t a question of black and white. No one was born a perpetrator, they became that way through a process. I think in the film we tried to show that along the way, that even among the perpetrators; they have sympathizers and differences of opinions within themselves because it’s a fluid situation. These are not people who were born without an ideology. And at some point whatever they have been indoctrinated with comes against their own conscience and in some cases their conscience prevails.

It was just a reality check that even the people who were going about committing various atrocities here and there at some point take stock and realise what’s going on is not the way things are supposed to be. I guess the film is just trying to put the picture out there that it’s not black and white and that you know. It’s good to remember that on certain levels, if one can get across to these people; some of these people can actually have a change of heart as to what they are doing because they weren’t born that way.

Do you speak Hausa because one of the most outstanding things about this film is the language of expression? How did you pull that off?

I certainly do not speak Hausa. I’m an indigene of Edo State, born and bred in Lagos. But notwithstanding it was very clear from the outset that the film needed to be rendered in Hausa language. Simply because that was the most authentic form of communication that naturally transpired between the characters in that setting.

What that meant was writing the script in the language I was familiar with which is English and getting that script translated into Hausa. And then going through the process of directing scenes that were being communicated in Hausa language and directing actors, several of whom weren’t very conversant with English.

Needing to rely on translators to communicate my thoughts and ideas as to what they were doing and getting the best out of them was not a straight forward process by any form of imagination.

It also probably prolonged the shooting schedule because of that need for them to key into what the vision was for their character; while also ensuring that they conform to what was written in the script and not go off from the tangent. Yes, that was not an automatic process at all. But I believe that it was an effort that was worth it at the end. It certainly took time to accomplish it.

You sure didn’t have the entire accolades that have followed this film at the start. How does it feel being so recognised by practitioners like yourself?

I certainly feel quite blessed to have solicited the collaboration of the people that I worked with on Milkmaid. From the outset, because we realised the importance of the story; we made a deliberate effort to recruit the best hands available in the business to help us realise the story to its fullest potential. That’s one level. But on another level, are the people you recruited inspired to do their best work on the project? which they were.

We knew we wanted to have a production that was of international quality, that will take time and lot of resources to achieve. But once we had done our best, the decision was left to the wider audience to make their judgement as to the quality of our effort. It’s certainly gratifying that people who understand the business and the challenges were able to acknowledge what we have done. That is extremely gratifying, giving the amount of efforts, commitment and sacrifice that went into it. So yes, we are certainly very excited, very grateful about the acknowledgement from practitioners like ourselves.

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Apart from the recognition that the film has brought your way, what essential message do you want Nigeria, the government and governed to learn from this film?

I think what forefront in my mind was that as a result of the crisis a lot of people has fallen. Unfortunately, nothing can be done about that. A lot of people were fortunate to survive but their lives have been irreparably broken and distorted. To a very large extent, they are really unable to move forward with their lives without significant assistance. That assistance is both material assistant, as well as emotional and psychological assistance. Because many of these people are victims of a large degree of trauma which is unquantified. No one has actually engaged them to understand what they’ve been through and help them overcome this harrowing ordeal that they’ve been through.

The message of the film is really just to remind people what the victims of the insurgence have been through; and what the survivors who are currently living with the trauma have experienced. To remind the world that these people are still out there, with many of them lying fallow in IDP camps in various places; and perhaps not receiving the attention and care that is required for them to recover the pieces of their lives.

We really wanted to remind the world that these people are out there. And hopefully be able to marshal some sort of support towards their rehabilitation and reintegration.

Similarly, we shouldn’t forget about them. We know that there is so much going on in the society. It’s very easy for their plight to be overwhelmed and submerged with all the other things going on. But hopefully the film helps to remind people that something should be done for the victims of insurgence who are still alive and with us.

Are you the son of the writer? How did she influence your leaving the banking career to become a filmmaker?

I am certainly fortunate to be the son of Mrs. Helen Ovbiagele, a writer. She indirectly influenced my decision to leave my banking career to become a filmmaker but not deliberately on her part. Surely she would have appreciated an endeavour that may have fewer risks financially with an element of job security and all that.

But she certainly appreciated the passion that I attach to filmmaking. She was very supportive in terms of my going through the motions of realising the thoughts and ideas that I had which required various forms of sacrifice and various forms of dislocation. Similarly, going from one’s comfort zone to places that are quite risky to some extent. But notwithstanding she was and is still quite supportive of what I am doing.

What training did you go through to transition from the banking industry to become a filmmaker?

It really is no waving of a magic wand to become something else. You literally have to put your head down and study. Understand where you are as a filmmaker, understand where other people are. Know more established and accomplished names, and study what they’ve done. Try to close that gap as much you can through various tutorials or videos, interviews or articles.

Just try and understand where the bar is in terms of filmmaking. Do what you have to do in terms of training yourself and absolving various information. Improve yourself and own your skills so that you can do justice to the stories that are out there. There’s nothing more glamorous that I’m afraid of. I’m just basically rolling up my sleeve and doing the work; and then leave the rest to God in terms of result.

How is the transition working for you?

It’s been a process of ups and downs, challenges here and there. Also, it’s not been necessarily smooth all the way. It’s not been a smooth sailing. But I think for me what is most important is learning, learning and learning every step of the way to improve yourself. Being very honest with yourself as to where you are and where you want to get to.

In terms of result, you can only pray that what you’re seeing right now is the fruits of that process. But you should hope that there is more to come in terms of achieving the full vision of filmmaking. It’s definitely a work in progress but it’s something I am very grateful for. I’m personally grateful for the amount of traction I have been able to make so far. And I’m committed to continuing to strive to reach for the highest possible level of filmmaking that I can accomplish. So, that is really where I am. It’s a journey and hopefully I continue to press towards the mark in that respect.