MOVIE / MUSIC > Current Projects

«The Making of King Baabu
or How to Deal with the Past»

A documentary: Wole Soyinka's play KING BAABU was rehearsed in the summer of 2001 in Badagry and put on in Lagos, Ibadan and Benin City. All of this was filmed.

Various press conferences and interviews with Wole Soyinka took place in parallel with this. Film material of the original recordings of the OPUTA PANEL was recorded. Also filmed were everyday scenes from Nigeria, as well as the visit of the theatre group to the King of Benin, interviews with Nigerian personalities on the subject of coming to terms with the past and excerpts from the play KING BAABU. At the centre of the film are conversations and interviews with Wole Soyinka, the home-comer from the exile.

The film documents his search for answers to the following questions: how can people look back on and reappraise their history and successfully heal their wounds?

How can this be achieved in Nigeria specifically? What part can a truth commission such as the OPUTA PANEL have in this? What influence is exerted by an artistic representation such as the stage play KING BAABU? In the style of a journal, a voice-over commentary connects the stages of the theatre project with the realities of «great politics», both of which are commentated by Wole Soyinka. Bernard Muller-Snoep, assistant to Wole Soyinka, has composed the texts that guide the audience members through the different levels.
up