On Thursday the 14th of November, Walking With Shadows screened across five halls at the African International Film Festival held in Oniru, Lagos. The film was produced by Funmi Iyanda in collaboration with The Initiative For Human Rights (TIERS) and is a screen adaptation of the novel of the same name by Jude Dibia. It tells the story of Adrian Njoko, a man whose sexuality was exposed and he has to choose between keeping his family or accepting a life of possible loneliness and rejection. Directed by Aoife O’Kelly, Walking With Shadows features a host of Nigerian superstars including Ozzy Agu, Zainab Balogun, Ade Laoye, Adunni Ade and Funlola Aofiyebi-Raimi.
The film starts off with a scene where Adrian (Ozzy Agu) meets his wife, Ada (Zainab Balogun) after a long day at work. Unknown to him, a disgruntled colleague has informed Ada of Adrian’s sexuality, a fact he doesn’t deny and tries to talk to his wife about. This is what sets the ball rolling for the film – from rejection at work and amongst family, and down to a couple of scenes that throw in more perspective for the whole film. As a gay man who has come to acceptance of his sexuality, I felt zero form of sympathy for Adrian at the beginning of the movie. I strongly believe that the society we find ourselves in pushes us to do a lot of things we don’t want to do. However, I also believe that this is one of those things that we can’t blame society for. It could be argued that Adrian had expected that his sexuality was going to be ‘watered down’ after he had gotten married and had a child, but that’s a conversation we can have some other time. Meeting Ada at the time he met her gave him the desire to try to cover that side of his life and start “anew.”
However, towards the end of the movie, I began to feel sympathy for him because as easy as it is to say, it is not the most straightforward thing. You can clearly see it in the streets and even on social media that Nigeria is still in it’s infancy stages when it comes to allowing gay people be. When the news had spread to Adrian’s family, it was met with reactions that included conversion therapy by a pastor. I started to understand why he felt the need to repress his sexuality. As producer, Funmi Iyanda said during the question and answer session after the screening, “Nigeria is ready for more conversations than we give her credit for.” It is our hope that films like this, will start the needed learning that the average Nigerian needs and also depict gay people as people first, before their sexuality.
The film also highlights a couple of things I find very interesting. One of these is the importance of community especially for LGBTQ+ people. After Adrian is rejected by his family, he seeks comfort in his friend who he had a strained relationship with. From what you see in the film, his friend houses him and provides a haven irrespective of the status of their relationship. I loved how that was depicted and how it hughlights the importance of chosen families especially, living in Nigeria. One other thing I found interesting was how society had placed an emphasis on marriage such that women felt the need to be either married to gay men, or even endure the marraige. There’s a scene in the film where Ihuoma (Omowunmi Dada) brings her friend, Ada (Zainab Balogun) to a gathering of women who knew they were married to gay men and still remained in the marraige. It was such a powerful and thought provoking scene for me.
Walking With Shadows made me feel seen as a gay man, existing in Lagos. It definitely is not a perfect film, but it tells a story that I would personally like everyone to see. Adrian may be me, he may be you and he may be your brother.
