Amina, the long-anticipated historical movie, which took the veteran Nollywood producer and actor, Okechukwu Ogunjiofor, about 25 years to execute, mainly received poor reviews on November 4, 2021, release.
The consensus was the same from northern Nigerian historians to Nigerians on social media. However, the historical drama was also criticised because the dialogue was in English instead of the Hausa language.
Initially shot in 2015, the movie garnered so much buzz on social media because it was hailed as Ogunjiofor’s comeback movie.
Initially scheduled for release in 2017, the eponymous epic movie tells the untold story of Queen Amina of Zazzau.
The producer said it took the crew about 25 years to produce and engage the services of over 1000 cast members.
According to Ogunjiofor, the cast was engaged in pre-production training where they were first camped for three months and trained on how to ride horses and use swords to fight on horsebacks before commencing shoot properly.
Lucy Ameh (Queen Amina), Ali Nuhu (Danjuma), Yakubu Mohammed ( Barde), Victoria Nweke (Mero), Abu Chris Gbakann (Sarki), Dan Chris Ebie, (Galadima), Usman Tijani (Ibrahim), Clarion Chukwura (Zumbura), Ummi Mohammed (Zaria), Godwin Ogaga (Kabarkai) played the lead roles in the film.
As with most Nigerian historical figures, little or no documented information and data means that not much is known about Amina’s ascension and reign, which was a significant flaw in the film.
