23rd October, 2019
British-Nigerian actor and movie director, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje has revealed why his film, ‘Farming’ took 15 years to make.
‘Matrix’ and ‘Thor’ actor, while speaking to journalists narrated that it took him a long time to finish the project because he lacked formal training as a story writer or scriptwriter but learnt on the job to ensure the film was made.
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje said he began writing the story of his life in 2003 and his lack of formal training as a writer and a director affected the filming of his debut production as a director.
In his words, “I started working on this, I started writing in 2003. And, you know, from start to finish, it probably took me about 15 years to make the film. And one of the reasons it took that long is I never trained as a writer, or director or indeed, even as an actor.”
“So I had to learn the skills of writing and adapting it into a screenplay. Whilst I was still, you know, doing my acting career. So that took time and then I had to prove that I was also capable of directing the material. So I had to go and finance a short film myself and film that so that I had to prove to people had something to show, you know, my directing ability. So that took time,” he explained.
The British-Nigerian actor had also hinted that his dreams had always been to marry Nollywood with Hollywood and he’s happy he has been able to achieve that with the film, ‘Farming’.
Akinnuoye-Agbaje said the success of the film is evident in the reception and appreciation it got from several film festivals and the audience across the world.
Farming, which stars a deluge of African actors and portrays the stark realities of people of colour in England in the 80s, based on Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s own unbelievable story as a troubled youth in London, the title “Farming” refers to the practice of giving children over to informal fostering, which many Nigerian parents did in 1960s and 1970s Britain.
Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s parents, at the time students in 1967 London, gave him to a white working-class couple in Tilbury, which was then a fiercely insular, majority-white dockside community. He was in constant danger of physical attack from local kids who, encouraged by their parents, nurtured a violent fear of black people.
Nigeria’s Nollywood star, Genevieve Nnaji plays some role in the film as the mother of the fostered boy.