Jack’enneth Opukeme is often behind the camera as a scriptwriter and most recently a co-director. Like many other writers, writing in Nollywood was never a straight-out goal. However, Opukeme seems to have magic hands, with his very first story Battle on Buka becoming one of the top 10 highest-grossing Nigerian films. He didn’t stop there; he proceeded to give us Adire, which won the hearts of so many Nigerians quickly. And now delivers another FilmOne original titled Farmer’s Bride.

Do you remember the hidden character Tunde in Adire, with the popular line “My God is a consuming fire”? Well, that was Opukeme and in fact his very first onscreen performance. In an exclusive interview with BSide, Opukeme details the journey to creating his recent project Farmer’s Bride.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

Bside: What are your greatest’s influence on the type of stories you write? 

It sounds like a cliché, but Nigeria. It’s the small towns and the small cities. I grew up in a small town. I’m from Bayelsa State. I lived in the East for some time. And then I also lived in Calabar. But the one thing about most of those places were small communities, just seeing people, everyday people. I think sometimes one of the mistakes we make when we tell stories about small places is we make everybody illiterate or we make a lot of characters poor and they don’t speak English.

Bside: Did your role as a co-director help in ensuring your work as the scriptwriter for Farmer’s Bride stayed intact? 

Well, definitely. I honestly wrote Farmer’s Bride, to be honest, in the hopes of directing it. It’s something that I was very much interested in. So yes, being a co-director or working in a directing capacity allowed me to ensure that this baby that I love, that I cherished so much, stayed intact. You know, the characters looked like how they were written on the page.

The world looked like the world that was written on the page. And everything just basically mirrors what was inside of the script. 

Bside: You mentioned community.  Battle on Buka Street and Adire had mirroring portrayals of distinct communities in Nigeria. What community influenced Farmer’s Bride?

Western Nigeria was a big influence for Farmer’s Bride. Coming to Lagos, the one thing I try to do, wherever I live is to feel the rhythm and the pulse of the people there. 

Because sometimes we are looking for inspiration from north, south, east, everywhere, when it’s literally where you are at the moment. Same with Adire. Now Farmer’s Bride, the West was calling to me. So it needed to be this film that was about vintage Nigeria, but not just vintage Nigeria, vintage Western Nigeria.

Bside: How are you still able to write in-depth stories without being influenced by the overwhelming nature of Lagos? 

I disappear a lot. I’m that person who would make the loudest noise in the first five minutes of a party, so that you think I’m around for the rest of the party, but I’ve run away.

After a project, after the whole stress of putting out a project, I find time to just disappear. And in that space, I’m thinking, I’m resting, I’m allowing the ideas. Because I always say this, I feel like sometimes we want to take so much credit for ideas. But I feel like sometimes ideas just exist in its fair.

Bside: How long did it take you to write Farmer’s Bride? And what were your inspirations for that particular story? 

Okay, thank God the question before this came. So I, it was after Adire, I think we had finished shooting. I had this accident that almost claims my life. And I was really ill.

Bside: So sorry about that.

Yeah, I’m just grateful to God for surviving it. So I needed to leave Lagos for some time, because I kept asking myself, after Adire, what next? But I wasn’t really feeling anything. And then I was just recovering from an illness.

So I went back to Calabar, stayed with a photographer friend. And we did like a couple of shoots, which informed my idea. So when I came back to Lagos, the idea for Farmer’s Bride was already brewing. I knew I wanted to go in the direction of of black love, you know, dark skinned lovers, I wanted to go in that direction. It took me a couple of months to actually say

Bside: Beautiful that you mentioned one of the actors. Sometimes scriptwriters say that they wrote a story in view of a particular actor or actress. So What informed the casting decisions made?

I’ve been very blessed with films like Adire and Farmer’s Bride that have allowed me to be a part of the decision making process for those films. For Farmer’s Bride, I knew I wanted to work with Gbubemi Ejeye, the lead actress in the film, who plays the role of Funmi.  

I just felt like this was my Funmi. That was even before I started writing. So I’d already made up my mind that, you know what, I will violently pitch when the time comes. Because I thought she carried the essence of Funmi, somebody who was beautiful enough, talented enough, but at the same time had a dangerous appeal to her.

I knew I also wanted to be Bakre as Femi, even before I started writing. Farmer’s Bride became like a quiet whisper, you know, in my soul and in my heart. And I knew I wanted to tell the lives of these people, but I did not want their lives to be distracted by so many other characters. And when you do watch the film, you are not tired of these six characters because they fill up every. They command the room.

Bside: What makes Farmer’s Bride a must watch movie?

Okay, because they won’t see a lot of things coming, that’s one.

Farmer’s Bride is also a very beautiful film. You know, as a writer, I’ll say it’s deep, I’ll say it’s very dramatic. It’s all of those things, to be honest. But it’s also a feast for the eyes. It is beautiful. I saw a comment or somebody called this, oh, Bridgeton. I’m like, you know, it’s not Bridgeton themed, but like, you know, the feeling that Bridgeton gives you of like a period piece that also feels very modern. So basically, if people want to have a good time, but at the same time also want to be on the edge of their seats and also want to. Then Farmer’s Bride is a film for you. And then also on the playful side, you know, Farmer’s Bride is the best film to see with somebody you’re in love with.

Bside: In a post on Instagram, you revealed that your story choices was because they have the ability to live forever. How it’s possible?

Filmmaking is a beautiful art form, right? Because the best films are timeless. One of my favorite films is The Color Purple, not the musical, the old one. I remember I used to watch it on TCM with my younger sister and it was like, why are you making me watch this film?

I think a film when it’s well done, years down the line, the issues will still remain universal, the issues will still remain poignant, will still remain important. But also, again, filmmaking is that art form that if you create the world to be beautiful enough.  Years down the line, it will remind people of a time when our people lived in a certain way. And how art was expressed in a certain way.

Films that could become a part of the culture. That could impact storytelling in the country or in the nation or in the continent. I also think Farmers Bride has that quality. And I hope to have more opportunities to make films that I do believe will stand the test of time.

Bside: Your stories always shine its light on the plight of women in societies like ours. Many argue that a woman’s story can never be told adequately by a man. What do you feel about that? 

I think that every single day as humans, filmmaking is a human-based art form. Whether it’s writing, whether it’s prose, we are telling the stories of humanity. 

You could also be drawn to tell the women in a salon close to your house because maybe that was your experience growing. But what I can say is the one thing that is important is that every production room or every film that is being made has an adequate balance of voices. So yes, I’m a guy who wrote Farmers Bride and it centers mostly on a female character.

But the one thing that I always learn. So I think as long as men are learning, relearning, educating themselves, and also films create this space where women’s voices are also heavily involved in the making of a story or a spectacle of the gender, I think there’s no problem there.

Because it’s like me telling Aunty Jade (Osiberu) not to make a Gangs of Lagos. I think that’s ridiculous because she finished work, she’s capable, she’s competent, and she can tell whatever story that she wants to tell. But for all of us who are filmmakers, the most important thing is to ask questions and to involve the people that you want to tell, especially when it’s not your people.

Bside: Do you feel writing Battle on Buka Streets, which became one of Nigeria’s highest grossers, put pressure on your writing afterwards? 

Oh yes, definitely. The thing is, everybody wants to know the next hit, right? I didn’t expect it so early. It definitely did, basically. Also, it also made me ask myself if I wanted to give in to the pressure.

Bside: Would you say the Nigerian audience would be receptive to this dynamic love story? 

I know that would get a lot of tongues wagging. I’m certain about that. We are waiting for that. But I think ultimately, Farmer’s Bride captures humans in their messiest state. So yes, the trailer had really hard moments in it. And basically, the film also has a lot of hard moments in it.

But at the end of the day, it’s the type of film that allows you to question your own humanity and say, if I’m Funmi and I’m in this situation, what would I do? Would I handle things differently? But definitely, it’s the kind of film that is designed for audience participation. People would participate. In fact, I think the few people that have seen the film, what I’ve noticed from the audience behavior from them, it’s how involved they are in.

Watch the trailer below:

New Trailer Alert! 🚨

Caught between a man she doesn’t love and the one who sets her heart ablaze, a young woman faces a choice that could lead to deadly consequences. 🔥

This movie is going to blow your mind on September 27th!#FarmersBrideMovie #ComingSoon pic.twitter.com/tLSLv49aS7

— FilmOne Entertainment (@FilmOneng) September 10, 2024