The Man Died, the 105-mins feature film inspired by the “Prison notes” of the Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, will be screened at the Auditorium of the University of Stuttgart, Germany, as part of ongoing 2025 Africa Theatre Association, AfTA Conference.
The film will be screened at 7.00 pm at the School of Media/Hochschule der Medien, and is expected to attract a rich mix of academics, conference attendees, culture researchers and other members of the university and the larger Stuttgart community.
In an invitation letter extended to the producer of the film, Femi Odugbemi, the convener of the conference convenor, Professor (Dr) Annette Buhler-Dietrich, stated:
“It gives us great pleasure to invite you to attend the 2025 Conference of the African Theatre Association (AfTA) at the University of Stuttgart, Germany on the theme of African and Afrodiasporic Theatre in the Digital Age. The conference is taking place between July 10 and 12, 2025.
“We would especially like to invite you to screen your movie The Man Died as part of the Conference 2025. The conference will happen in Stuttgart with the opening ceremony on the evening of the July 11. The screening of your film is scheduled for July 11, 7pm, at the School of Media/Hochschule der Medien, Stuttgart. There will be a discussion after the screening.
“The invitation also extends invitation to the director of the festival, Awam Amkpa, and the producers to participate in a post-screening conversation that would feature members of the university community and the AfTA conferees, engaging the film the content and context of the film. Essentially, the Conversation will have the director and producers exploring how The Man Died, to examine the creative choices, challenges, and cultural resonances involved in translating text to film.”
Written by a notable Nigerian script/screenwriter, Bode Asiyanbi, based in the United Kingdom, The Man Died, which aside the 105-minute version is also available as a 124-minutes (for academic exposition), stars a coterie of renowned names on the Nigerian screen, including Wale Ojo as Wole, Sam Dede as Yisa, Norbert Young (Prison Superintendent), Francis Onwochei (Prison Controller) and Edmond Enaibe as Commissioner; as well as international actors, London-UK-based Christiana Oshunniyi (Laide Soyinka), and Los Angeles, USA-based Abraham Awam-Amkpa (Johnson), among others.
READ ALSO: WAFCON: Super Falcons edge Botswana 1-0 in tough encounter
Synopsis: Produced by Zuri 24 Media, The Man Died, according to the synopsis on its website — www.themandiedmovie.com — is the story of Wole Soyinka’s 27 months incarceration by the Nigerian government in 1967 at the cusp of the civil war.
He was famously seeking a truce between Biafra and the Federal Government to allow time for a negotiated settlement of the conflict.
It is fundamentally a personal account.
Essentially, the subject found refuge from the brutality inflicted upon him by retreating into and living within his own mind.
At times, he drifted about the frontiers of madness, hanging on to himself by a thread.
At other times, he pondered, listened, and watched, like only the truly otherwise unoccupied can.
Importantly, he managed to scrounge paper and a pencil from time to time and record his journey of ‘motionlessness.”
Since release in July 2024 to mark the 90th birthday anniversary of the poet, dramatist, essayist, memoirist, polemicist and “global humanist”, the film has been doing well in global film circuits, as well as at educational circuits.
It is also being considered for special screenings at educational institutions in Florence, Italy; Abu Dhabi in the UAE; at New York University, Harvard University, and at Ithaca College, all in the USA; at Oxford University, in the United Kingdom; as well as at the House of World Culture in Berlin, Germany, among others.
This is as it is also being reviewed by at least three major global streaming platforms, and international distribution channels.
