“CAPTURE THE HEART, AND THE HEAD WILL FOLLOW. Aim for the heart not the brain.”
Funke Akindele, as every other successful film producer, understands consumer behaviour. The storyline does not necessarily have to make much logical sense. It just has to make people feel emotional. Like, “Oh my gosh! I cried when the boy died”, instead of “Are they trying to tell us it’s alright to steal for the right reasons?”
Below are the 11 reasons for her success. There is a BONUS reason at the end.
1. BIBLICAL TITLE: Nigerians are religious. Super-religious. Mega-Ultra-Super Religious. So, when they hear “A Tribe Called Judah”, they rush to the cinemas to see what the fuss is about. People will be like: “Was Funke a Pastor in this film?” “How
does it make sense to have a Nigerian film about the Jewish name, Judah?” So they will flock to the cinemas to find out.
2. THE CONCEPT: It’s about a dying woman with 5 sons from 5 different men from 5 Nigerian tribes. North. East. West. South and…I think I am forgetting something here.
3. LANGUAGE AND CULTURAL REPRESENTATION: Since there are different tribes in Nigeria from distinct geopolitical zones, it makes a lot of sense to represent them by using their language. Politicians use our weakness for language and tribalism to win
elections every four years. So why would it not work on-screen? No matter how much you hate me, if I speak your language, you will soften up, unless your heart is made of iron.
4. GHETTO STORY: Ghetto stories usually sell since majority of Nigerians barely live below the poverty line, which has been made worse by inflation. The reason Karl Marx proposed the idea of communism is because, from time immemorial, the poor have always wanted to take from the rich, because the rich don’t seem to deserve their wealth and appear insensitive to the plight of the less fortunate. Funke simply tapped into the psychology of that collective resentment.
5. “I LOVE MY MOMMY, SHE CAN DO NO WRONG”: Everyone loves their mother, or feels like they should. Even when our mothers treat us unfairly, and we react, society will tell us: “You owe her love and respect. She carried you for 9 months. She risked her life to birth you. You sucked her breasts”, etc. Our society worships mothers and despise childless women because the more women give birth to children, the more our chances of survival are enhanced. Society values a father less because his perceived value is not in his ability to reproduce, but to provide. A woman’s value is in her willingness and ability to reproduce. Only one man is needed to impregnate 1,000 women. So, if the other 999 men are sent to war to die, nobody really gives a damn. So when their mother (Funke) falls sick and needs money, the audience gets emotional when the five brothers go to steal. As if that’s the only way to raise money. But the audience feels it’s alright because we are supposed to do ANYTHING for our mothers, right?
6. PROMOTION: What is unseen and unheard of accounts for nothing. Interviews. Photoshoot. Social Media coverage. Trailers. Posters. Paid reviews. Yes, you can pay a film critic to sit in the theatre so she will tell her fans that a film is great, whereas it’s not. All of this time and investment paid off eventually.
7. AN ARMY OF DEVOTED FANS: Funke has a cult following, which I want to envy her for, but I don’t because she is – believe it or not – actually a hard worker. But the fact remains that if you come out and criticise Funke anywhere, 7 out of 10 people will bring out their dagger and fight you.
8. CONSCIOUS INVOLVEMENT: She keeps trying new things and studying the market response to it. Believe it or not, trial and error and learning from your mistakes is a huge and necessary part of your success. You need to make calculated mistakes and
learn from them. That’s what makes you smarter. If you don’t fail, you can’t learn anything new and if you learn anything by consciously involving yourself for as long as possible, then I am afraid, success is not for you.
9. LOVE STORY: Everyone loves a good old love story. Somehow a love story between Genoveva Umeh and that other guy, one of Funke’s sons, increased the emotional quality of the film. Combine that with the concept of family love. Siblings who would stay together as partners in crime. Loyalty and love is so attractive, isn’t it?
10. DEATH: A supposedly “good” guy died trying to save his mother or some worthy ideal. Jesus Christ did the same thing. He died to save humanity. Remember: it doesn’t have to be for a good reason. It has to be emotional. Death will make you cry, but it will keep the film in your brain long enough for you to tell someone about it who will go out and watch it.
11. GENERATIONAL APPEAL: Gen Z loves vibes and energy more than substance. Let it feel good. Let it look good. Let it look cool. Let it be fast and quick. Then quickly jump from one scene to the next like a Tiktok video. Don’t give us much time to think. Who needs boring characters with maturity and good judgement? Just keep it exciting. Yay! “Capture the youths, and the rest will follow”, hence, the viral trend.
BONUS REASON: STRATEGICALLY STAR-STUDDED (S.S.S.): Every single Nigerian star with a cult following was present. Representative also, of their demographic in age and state of origin. I am an Edo guy so when I saw Etinosa Idemudia speaking Edo language, even me sef was like “Wow!”
CONCLUSION
Don’t hate on Funke Akindele. Instead praise her for what you can learn. “A Tribe Called Judah” might not be Oscar-Quality-Perfect, but she just gave you the “formula” for your own film to succeed in the Nigerian market. Who knows? Maybe yours will reach a billion dollars sef.
*Aimiuwu is an ambitious and no-nonsense screenwriter.
