Phyllis 2011
Phyllis is a moving and atmospheric portrait of a ‘psychic’ vampire, a woman obsessed with synthetic Nollywood dramas, that lives alone in Lagos, Nigeria. The central idea of this short experimental film is the practise and significance of wig-wearing in Nollywood film; a practise the director has invested with deeper psychological as well as science-fiction layers. Underpinning this central idea however is a critique of the unforgiving treatment of single women in Nollywood and Nigeria. The film is an example of what the director, Zina Saro-Wiwa, has termed “alt-Nollywood”, a genre that plays with and reworks certain narrative, stylistic and visual conventions of Nollywood. Phyllis explores the gothic possibilities of the Nollywood aesthetic creating a new kind of low-budget atmospheric film that is very much of Nollywood and yet subverts the genre. Using Nollywood to subvert Nollywood.
- Released: 2011-04-07
- Runtime: 16 minutes
- Genre: Fantasy, Drama
- Stars: Olushola Adeyinka, Gboyega Babajide, Opeyemi Fajemirokun
- Director: Zina Saro-Wiwa, Ben Grinberg, Zina Saro-Wiwa, Opeyemi Fajemirokun, Sese Somolu
