“Culture is not an ornament; it is the oxygen of the story. If the characters don’t breathe the air of their traditions, they are merely puppets in a vacuum.”
Cinema, in relation to filmmaking and lovers of films, is often described by many as a mirror held up to nature. True. Again perspectives matter. More accurately, which again to some is relative, it is actually a mirror held up to culture. While a script provides the bones and actors provide the soul, it is the customs and traditions woven into the narrative that surely provide the skin, that is, the texture that makes a film feel lived-in, believable, and resonant. In the modern globalized film industry, the intersection of heritage and screenwriting has become more than just a stylistic choice; it is the cornerstone of authentic storytelling that would have direct cultural philosophical impact on the people.
At its core, and from our diverse ways of understanding culture, custom is explained to be a repeated practice that binds a community together. In filmmaking, these rituals serve as powerful shorthand for character development and world-building. Whether it is the meticulous preparation of a tea ceremony in a Japanese drama or the vibrant, chaotic energy of a big fat Benin wedding, customs ground the audience in a specific reality.
When a film director creatively leans into cultural specifics, they are not just adding flavor, but intentionally establishing the stakes that would create a cultural blend. In many cultures, the breaking of a tradition is the ultimate inciting incident. Consider the tension in films dealing with the clash of generations, and you would realise that the conflict rarely stems from a lack of love, but rather from a divergence in how customs are honored.
Taking our minds down the memory lane, we would notice that Hollywood and other major film hubs often treated “customs” as exotic set dressing purely for aesthetic purposes, frequently getting them wrong or blending disparate cultures into a monolithic “other,” under the guise of arts for arts sake. However, the 21st century has seen a massive shift toward cultural specificity, and this is done deliberately too.
Costume and set designs are perhaps the most visible way customs of any culture manifest on screen. In many Eastern cultures, colors carry weight that differs significantly with meanings from Western interpretations. For example, while a white dress signifies a wedding in the West, it is the color of mourning in many parts of Asia. It is also with different meaning in Edo state, in Nigeria where white majorly for the family of the deceased or any bright coloured clothes for the invited guests can be used to celebrate the death of anyone that has attained the age of 90 years and above. Filmmakers who respect these nuances, like those behind Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Ikoka, use these visual cues to communicate subconscious emotional states to the diverse heterogeneous audience.
Customs dictate how we move and this is where we can easily differentiate ourselves from modes of worship, colours for ceremonies and many more. The depth of a bow, the avoidance of eye contact, manners of greetings, age group dress-sense or the seating arrangement at a dinner table can tell a story of power dynamics without a single line of dialogue.
Several landmark films have used cultural customs not just as a backdrop, but as the engine of the plot itself.
The Farewell (2019): This film centers entirely on a Chinese tradition (the “good lie”) where a family decides not to tell their matriarch she is terminally ill. The entire conflict arises from the friction between Western individualist customs and Eastern collectivist traditions.
Coco (2017): Pixar’s exploration of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) clearly shows that when a film treats a specific custom with reverence and research, it becomes universally relatable. By focusing on the specific mechanics of the “ofrenda,” (meaning offering in Spanish) the film touched on the universal human fear of being forgotten.
Black Panther (2018): This film was huge attempt at masterclass in “Afrofuturism,” blending high-tech sci-fi with deeply researched debatable African tribal customs, from the lip plates of the Mursi people to the Basotho blankets of Lesotho. However, many may think that represents the Africa culture, whereas it was a minute slice of Africa, as a continent, culture and customs. We also have films like “Ikoka, Invasion 1897, Oba Ewuakpe, Ogidigan, Queen Sisters, Okoro the Prince” are some, amongst other films, representing the culture and customs of the Benin people of Edo State. There are other films from the Eastern, Western and Northern parts of Nigeria that also included the original forms of their customs and culture of the Nigeria people in their films.
To intentionally bridge the gap between imagination and reality, the role of the Cultural Consultant or Ambassador has become vital. These experts ensure that religious rites, linguistic dialects, and social etiquettes are portrayed accurately without deliberate biases on the ways of lives of divers peoples in films. This will go a long way to avoiding misrepresentation of the customs and traditions of peoples within any geographical region. This is not just about “political correctness”, but about immersion. A single inaccuracy for example, of a character wearing a headpiece incorrectly or using the wrong hand for a gesture—can shatter the “suspension of disbelief” for millions of viewers.
For instance, during the production of Moana, Disney formed the “Oceanic Story Trust,” a group of anthropologists, linguists, and elders from the Pacific Islands. This ensured that the customs of wayfinding and tattoo artistry were not just “cool visuals” but respected pillars of the narrative. This is what filmmaking must do as the last gatekeepers between filmmakers and the diverse heterogeneous audiences.
In 2026, the film market is truly global. A movie produced in Seoul can be a hit in Benin City of Edo State, Nigeria within hours. As audiences become more culturally literate, their appetite for “generic” storytelling wanes. They do crave the specific.
There is a famous saying in filmmaking: “The more specific you are, the more universal you become.” When we see the specific customs of a family in a village halfway across the world, we don’t see “strangers.” We see the universal human desire for belonging, structure, and legacy. Customs are the bridge that allows a viewer to feel at home in a story that is not their own.
As we look toward the future of cinema and its acceptance by the public for viewing films, the integration of customs will likely become even more sophisticated. With the rise of immersive filmmaking, experiencing a culture’s traditions will go beyond just the screen, thereby allowing audiences to step into the rituals of others all for the sake of art’s or films sake.
Filmmaking is the ultimate preservation tool. As some traditions fade in the real world and in real-time due to modernization, search for identity, while the filmmaker captures them in amber, ensuring that the “way things were done” remains part of the human record in an entertaining form. By honoring customs, filmmakers will then do more than just entertain, as they will become cultural ambassadors who then think via the camera lens in protecting the diverse tapestry of human identity across the global but from their diverse cultural philosophies.
