The feature-length animated film is based on Cyprian Ekwensi’s 1960 novel of the same title.
A Production company has confirmed a new partnership with Studios on the production of ‘The Passport of Mallam Illia’, Africa’s first indigenous 2D animated film.
Announcing the new partnership, the company boss Nwakaego Boyo shared: ” The chance to tell real African stories, animation a medium I have always been interested in, and the opportunity to share this valuable source of historical fiction with young audiences, as well as others who have had the opportunity to read this book was too good to pass up.
Speaking on the huge budget production, the Studio CEO Ferdy Ladi Adimefe revealed:
“The book was chosen due to its significance in the African literary space; a short, easy-to-digest, young adult book, covering the pre-independence realities of what is now Northern Nigeria but was then the Northern emirate in a pre-colonial era…If you see the quality of the teaser we put out, you realize we don’t want to tell a domestic story, but a global story and this has the recipe.”
The first teaser for the animated film debuted in 2018 starring Sadiq Daba, Toyin Oshinaike, Dija among others.
Written in 1948 and published in 1960, ‘The Passport of Mallam Ilia’ follows a man, Ilia, who is seeking revenge for the death of his wife, Zarah, at the hands of a Mallam Usman.
Watch the teaser: