Cast: Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim, John Boyega
Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood
Showing at Century Cinemax Acacia Mall, Arena Mall and Metroplex Mall Nalya
Many of the great things we see today started as ideas. It is the same thing for films, for example, Black Panther was an idea that was shelved for more than 20 years before it eventually became a screen reality.
The 2018 Black Panther featured an inspirational all-female troupe of warriors led by Danai Gurira’s Okoye and Florence Kasumba’s Ayo. At the time, there was a lot of interest in exploring different characters from Wakanda and among those was the all-female warriors.
There was an interest in producing a televised TV drama focusing on the women that inspired the warriors of Wakanda, the Dahomey warriors from the Dahomey kingdom, the present day Benin.
However, little is known of what happened to that serialised drama is a story Mo Abdi, the then producer can tell. But at the moment, the world is gearing up for The Woman King, a film based on the Dahomey all-female warriors.
The Woman King follows a story of the Agojie, the all-female warrior unit who protected the West African kingdom of Dahomey during the 17th to 19th centuries. Set in the 1820s, the film stars Viola Davis as a general who trains the next generation of warriors to fight their enemies. It is directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and written by Dana Stevens, based on a story she wrote with Maria Bello. The film also stars Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim, and John Boyega.
Bello conceived the idea for The Woman King in 2015 after visiting Benin, where Dahomey used to be located, and learning the history of the Agojie. Convinced she had found a story worth telling, she recruited Cathy Schulman to develop it into a feature film. They pitched it to several studios, who turned it down due to financial concerns.
–Andrew Kaggwa
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