Shot in dense, high-contrast black and white, writer-director C.J. “Fiery” Obasi’s “Mami Wata,” unspools like a mysterious dream. It’s both inscrutable and hypnotic, delivering indelible images while remaining narratively opaque. Billed as a “West African folklore,” its story could be taken as a straightforward fable about tradition vs. modernity and how power corrupts. But as its plot unravels, confounding layers surface beneath that easy explanation. “Mami Wata,” a Sundance discovery selected to be Nigeria’ official Oscar submission, keeps the audience entranced if never truly engaged.
Taking its cues from the legend of the female water spirit revered in that part of the world, Obasi’s story centers on Mama Efe (Rita Edochie), a medium and healer who claims to hold the keys to the all-powerful Mami Wata. The inhabitants of the isolated oceanside village shower Mama Efe with crops and gifts in an effort to win over the water deity.
Taking its cues from the legend of the female water spirit revered in that part of the world, Obasi’s story centers on Mama Efe (Rita Edochie), a medium and healer who claims to hold the keys to the all-powerful Mami Wata. The inhabitants of the isolated oceanside village shower Mama Efe with crops and gifts in an effort to win over the water deity.
- 12/8/2023
- by Murtada Elfadl
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: The Gotham Group has signed Nigerian filmmaker C.J. Obasi, whose latest feature Mami Wata is Nigeria’s entry for Best International Feature Oscar in the 96th Academy Awards.
Mami Wata world premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in its World Cinema – Dramatic section, where it won the cinematography prize.
Award-winning filmmaker Obasi’s previous credits include Ojuju (2014) and O-Town (2015), which screened at various festivals, including Gothenburg and Fantasia.
His short film, Hello, Rain (2018) premiered at Oberhausen and over 40 festivals, winning a Jury Prize at Fantasia, and the BFI Short Film Award nomination. Juju Stories (2021), an anthology film directed by the Surreal1 Collective, won the Boccalino D’oro Award for Best Film at Locarno.
Set in a remote West African village, Mami Wata follows the villagers who worship the Mermaid-deity Mami Wata and look for guidance from their healer Mama Efe (Rita Edochie), her daughter Zinwe (Uzoamaka Aniunoh) and protégé...
Mami Wata world premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in its World Cinema – Dramatic section, where it won the cinematography prize.
Award-winning filmmaker Obasi’s previous credits include Ojuju (2014) and O-Town (2015), which screened at various festivals, including Gothenburg and Fantasia.
His short film, Hello, Rain (2018) premiered at Oberhausen and over 40 festivals, winning a Jury Prize at Fantasia, and the BFI Short Film Award nomination. Juju Stories (2021), an anthology film directed by the Surreal1 Collective, won the Boccalino D’oro Award for Best Film at Locarno.
Set in a remote West African village, Mami Wata follows the villagers who worship the Mermaid-deity Mami Wata and look for guidance from their healer Mama Efe (Rita Edochie), her daughter Zinwe (Uzoamaka Aniunoh) and protégé...
- 11/14/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
One of the most visually ravishing movies I saw at Sundance Film Festival early this year was C.J. “Fiery” Obasi’s Mami Wata, “A West Afrikan Folklore,” as our exclusive debut of the alternate poster notes. The black-and-white Nigerian feature brings a folk-futurist style to the tale of a battle between opportunistic militants promising technological progress and a matriarchal spiritual order living in fragile harmony with the ocean. Picked up by Dekanalog for a theatrical release beginning on September 29 at Bam in NYC and Chicago’s Gene Siskel Film Center, the film will expand in the weeks to follow.
Here’s the official synopsis: “In the oceanside village of Iyi, the revered Mama Efe (Rita Edochie) acts as an intermediary between the people and the all-powerful water deity Mami Wata. But when a young boy is lost to a virus, Efe’s devoted daughter Zinwe (Uzoamaka Aniunoh) and skeptical...
Here’s the official synopsis: “In the oceanside village of Iyi, the revered Mama Efe (Rita Edochie) acts as an intermediary between the people and the all-powerful water deity Mami Wata. But when a young boy is lost to a virus, Efe’s devoted daughter Zinwe (Uzoamaka Aniunoh) and skeptical...
- 9/6/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Director Cj “Fiery” Obasi (Ojuju) is back this year with the black & white Nigerian film Mami Wata, and Bloody Disgusting has been provided with the exclusive trailer reveal today.
Dekanalog brings Mami Wata to U.S. cinemas on September 29, 2023. The Sundance darling is currently 100% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, with 16 reviews posted at this time.
Here’s the official plot synopsis…
“In the oceanside village of Iyi, the revered Mama Efe (Rita Edochie) acts as an intermediary between the people and the all-powerful water deity Mami Wata. But when a young boy is lost to a virus, Efe’s devoted daughter Zinwe (Uzoamaka Aniunoh) and skeptical protégé Prisca (Evelyne Ily Juhen) warn Efe about unrest among the villagers. With the sudden arrival of a mysterious rebel deserter named Jasper (Emeka Amakeze), a conflict erupts, leading to a violent clash of ideologies and a crisis of faith for the people of Iyi.
Dekanalog brings Mami Wata to U.S. cinemas on September 29, 2023. The Sundance darling is currently 100% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, with 16 reviews posted at this time.
Here’s the official plot synopsis…
“In the oceanside village of Iyi, the revered Mama Efe (Rita Edochie) acts as an intermediary between the people and the all-powerful water deity Mami Wata. But when a young boy is lost to a virus, Efe’s devoted daughter Zinwe (Uzoamaka Aniunoh) and skeptical protégé Prisca (Evelyne Ily Juhen) warn Efe about unrest among the villagers. With the sudden arrival of a mysterious rebel deserter named Jasper (Emeka Amakeze), a conflict erupts, leading to a violent clash of ideologies and a crisis of faith for the people of Iyi.
- 9/5/2023
- by John Squires
- bloody-disgusting.com
In C.J. “Fiery” Obasi’s Mami Wata, black becomes a canvas onto which the director paints a propulsive and vivid narrative. The shade takes on new roles and meanings in this feature about brewing ideological differences in a fictional West African village. Black shadows the waves crashing the shores as one character contemplates the fate of her people. Black sharpens the designs drawn in white paint on the faces of villagers. Black portends the sinister, the vengeful, the hopeful and the renewed faith swirling within an allegory for the slow creep of modernity.
The film takes place in Iyi, the village where Mami Wata, the water deity of West Africa and its diaspora cultures, has reigned via her intermediary Mama Efe (Rita Edochie) for decades. Obasi begins his wily, supernatural tale with generational tension: Mame Efe’s daughter Zinwe (Uzoamaka Aniunoh) storms out of their home after her mother...
The film takes place in Iyi, the village where Mami Wata, the water deity of West Africa and its diaspora cultures, has reigned via her intermediary Mama Efe (Rita Edochie) for decades. Obasi begins his wily, supernatural tale with generational tension: Mame Efe’s daughter Zinwe (Uzoamaka Aniunoh) storms out of their home after her mother...
- 2/1/2023
- by Lovia Gyarkye
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Dekanalog releases the film in select theaters on Friday, September 29.
Mami Wata is a multifaceted figure whose personae is as diverse as the diaspora that venerates her. A patroness of beauty, money, and all things that ebb and flow, she’s sometimes depicted as being half-woman, half-fish. At other times, she’s shown with a gigantic serpent wrapped around her shoulders. She’s a relatively new deity who arose between the 15th and 20th centuries, a period when Africa became heavily involved in global trade. Her name comes from pidgin English, the language of commerce, and translates as “Mother Water.” She’s a water spirit, ruling over the seas that separated captive Africans from their homes and brought foreign people and influences to African shores, and she can be as benevolent or as cruel as the ocean itself.
Mami Wata is a multifaceted figure whose personae is as diverse as the diaspora that venerates her. A patroness of beauty, money, and all things that ebb and flow, she’s sometimes depicted as being half-woman, half-fish. At other times, she’s shown with a gigantic serpent wrapped around her shoulders. She’s a relatively new deity who arose between the 15th and 20th centuries, a period when Africa became heavily involved in global trade. Her name comes from pidgin English, the language of commerce, and translates as “Mother Water.” She’s a water spirit, ruling over the seas that separated captive Africans from their homes and brought foreign people and influences to African shores, and she can be as benevolent or as cruel as the ocean itself.
- 1/25/2023
- by Katie Rife
- Indiewire
Seven years before its Jan. 23 world premiere in Park City — the first-time that a homegrown Nigerian feature has scored a coveted slot in the World Cinema Dramatic competition at Sundance — C.J. Obasi’s “Mami Wata” began with a vision.
The director was sitting on a West African beach, in between projects and contemplating his next move. Suddenly, an apparition came to him: A mermaid standing on the ocean’s shore, beckoning to a mysterious young woman behind him.
“It was really vivid,” Obasi says. “It was in black and white. In the vision, the goddess’ eyes are red, but also very soft. There was a kindness to her eyes. When I came to, I said, Ok, so my next movie is ‘Mami Wata.’”
What followed was a personal and professional journey to understand that moment on the beach, and to breathe life into a movie about the titular mermaid-deity of West African folklore.
The director was sitting on a West African beach, in between projects and contemplating his next move. Suddenly, an apparition came to him: A mermaid standing on the ocean’s shore, beckoning to a mysterious young woman behind him.
“It was really vivid,” Obasi says. “It was in black and white. In the vision, the goddess’ eyes are red, but also very soft. There was a kindness to her eyes. When I came to, I said, Ok, so my next movie is ‘Mami Wata.’”
What followed was a personal and professional journey to understand that moment on the beach, and to breathe life into a movie about the titular mermaid-deity of West African folklore.
- 1/24/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
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