Eyimofe (This Is My Desire)
Directed by Arie Esiri and Chuko Esiri • 2020 • Nigeria
Starring Jude Akuwudike, Temi Ami-Williams, Tomiwa Edun
This revelatory, award-winning debut feature from codirectors (and twin brothers) Arie and Chuko Esiri is a heartrending and hopeful portrait of everyday human endurance in Lagos, Nigeria. Shot on richly textured 16 mm film and infused with the spirit of neorealism, EYIMOFE (THIS IS MY DESIRE) traces the journeys of two distantly connected strangers—Mofe (Jude Akuwudike), an electrician dealing with the fallout of a family tragedy, and Rosa (Temi Ami-Williams), a hairdresser supporting her pregnant teenage sister—as they each pursue their dream of starting a new life in Europe while bumping up against the harsh economic realities of a world in which every interaction is a transaction. From these intimate stories emerges a vivid snapshot of life in contemporary Lagos, whose social fabric is captured in all its vibrancy and complexity.
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Eyimofe (This Is My Desire)
Directed by Arie Esiri and Chuko Esiri • 2020 • Nigeria
Starring Jude Akuwudike, Temi Ami-Williams, Tomiwa EdunThis revelatory, award-winning debut feature from codirectors (and twin brothers) Arie and Chuko Esiri is a heartrending and hopeful portrait of everyday human endurance in Lagos, Nig...
Extras
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Arie and Chuko Esiri on EYIMOFE
In this interview, recorded in 2022, directors Arie and Chuko Esiri discuss their creative processes; shooting EYIMOFE, their debut feature, in their native Lagos, Nigeria; and the paths they took to get there, with filmmaker (and Arie’s former professor) Bette Gordon.
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Melissa O. Adeyemo on EYIMOFE
In this interview with Melissa O. Adeyemo, recorded in 2021, the producer discusses how the filmmaking team and financing for EYIMOFE—funded entirely in Nigeria—came together, and the realities of filming on location in Lagos.
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EYIMOFE Deleted Scenes
Presented here are two scenes that, though they had to be cut from the final version of EYIMOFE, were key to the filmmakers’ creative and working process.
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EYIMOFE Deleted Scenes with Commentary
Presented here are two deleted scenes accompanied by audio commentary, featuring directors Arie and Chuko Esiri and recorded in 2022. They are accompanied by an audio commentary, featuring directors Arie and Chuko Esiri and recorded in 2022.
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Goose
Directed by Arie Esiri and Chuko Esiri • 2017 • United States, Nigeria
Starring Jacob AlexanderThis short film was directed by Arie and Chuko Esiri in 2017, while they were studying film at Columbia University and New York University, respectively, and it stars EYIMOFE’s Jacob Alexander as a si...
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Besida
"Directed by Chuko Esiri • 2018 • Nigeria
Directed by Chuko Esiri and produced by Arie Esiri, BESIDA is a short film shot in 2018 in Abraka, Nigeria, and influenced by both ethnographic film and film noir. Titled after a Nigerian personal name meaning “as destiny decides,” it follows the tenuous...
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Because Men in Silk Shirts on Lagos Nights
Directed by Arie Esiri • 2018 • United States
Presented here is a short made by Arie Esiri in 2018 for the fashion brand Maki Oh. Shot on celluloid at night in Lagos, Nigeria, the film has eerie postapocalyptic and Afrofuturist overtones.
