Every Thursday, a group of students from the University of Ibadan, the oldest in Nigeria, organizes a film club, transforming a small lecture hall into a political agora where they develop a critical voice. “Coconut Head Generation”, a scornful expression to designate a stubborn and brainless youth, takes on a whole new meaning when the students turn this stigma around to claim their freedom of thought.
Alain Kassandra takes us to the University of Ibadan, Nigeria’s oldest university, where a student film club — Thursday Film Series — tables critical conversations on corruption, gender roles, LGBTQ+ rights, colonialism and housing. Through an examination of how film affects the way we perceive the world, we follow these students as they struggle to make sense of their place in contemporary Nigeria while facing an oppressive university system that extends to a broader Nigerian context. We are thrust into a film that ask us to hope for a future in the face of the country’s many adversities.
Kika Memeh & Ogheneofegor Obuwoma, FOCUS Curators
Presented by
Tobi Akinde, Adeyosola Adeniran, Leye Komolafe, Deyo Adebiyi, Obayomi Anthony Ayodele, Adeyemi Olufunmilayo Adebimpe
France/Nigeria
2023
In English, French and Yoruba with English subtitles and open captions
Graphic violence
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Producer
Alain Kassanda, Emilie Guitard
Cinematography
Alain Kassanda, Tobi Akinde
Editor
Alain Kassanda
Alain Kassandra
Born in Kinshasa, DRC, Alain Kassanda moved to France at the age of eleven. After studying communication, he organized movie screenings in various Parisian theatres and eventually becoming a programmer of an art house cinema for five years. From 2015 to 2019, he relocated to Ibadan, Nigeria where he directed his first short film Trouble Sleep (winner of the Golden Dove at Dok Leipzig 2020). His first feature film, Colette & Justin was selected for the IDFA’s 2022 international competition. Coconut Head Generation is his third film.
Filmography: Colette & Justin (2022)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Art of Adventure
The unbelievable adventure story of how painter Robert Bateman and ecologist Bristol Foster drove a Land Rover from Africa to Australia in 1957, developing a love of nature to last a lifetime. An inspirational love letter to the adventure of life itself.
Parsley Days
Kate is ambivalent about her relationship with Ollie. While he's undeniably a great guy, she's curious about what else the world might hold. But when she discovers she's pregnant, breaking up becomes a little more complicated. A magical realist delight!
Outrageous!
Two misfits find love and support in this cult classic and landmark for Canadian queer cinema. Determined to retain her freedom after being treated for schizophrenia, Liza grows equally committed to seeing Robin realize his potential as a drag performer.
Dead Lover
A foul-smelling gravedigger's romance ends in tragedy, spurring her to attempt a resurrection through a madcap series of science experiments. Grace Glowicki and Ben Petrie’s film is a zany DIY horror that zaps fresh life into Mary Shelley's classic.
Sansho the Bailiff
The third of the great Japanese masters (with Ozu and Kurosawa), Mizoguchi is a poet of suffering. There's plenty of that here in his exquisite telling of an ancient folktale about the enslavement of a woman and her two children.