Lolo Eremie Traces Cinderella's African Roots in Her Directorial Debut 'Tarella’

Lolo Eremie came up in a time when "if you couldn't sing, dance, and act, you were not considered the real deal." Currently working as a radio presenter, Eremie has dabbled in music, performed in theater, and recently released her debut directorial feature, Tarella, in cinemas across Nigeria.

Eremie attributes her lifelong fascination with visual storytelling to her father, "a lawyer during the day who would write plays at night." She has always known she would make films one day. Working with veteran Nigerian filmmaker and co-director Kayode Kasum, Tarella is a product of her discovery that Disney's classic animated film Cinderellamay have an African origin.

"During my research, one of the materials I stumbled across was talking about a Greek writer called Strabo, the author of the original Cinderella narrative about an Egyptian girl circa 30 BC in Egypt," Eremie tells OkayAfrica. While Tarella is not a retelling of Strabo's story, it's inspired by it, with the titular character being a descendant of Rhodopis – the protagonist in the Greek writer's lore.

Set in the mythical kingdom of Akkaya, the film follows the star-crossed meeting between Tarella (Okawa Shaznay) and Prince Nosa (Timini Egbuson). Tarella won Best Drama at the Toronto International Nollywood Film Festival last year, while Richard Mofe-Damijo won the award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as King Ohen.

"It's been about three years in the works, and, yes, there is a bit of anxiety," Eremie confesses. "Naturally, I would have wanted it to come out sooner, but there were bumps here and there, so we're happy it's finally out now."

Our conversation with Eremie has been edited for length and clarity. It follows below.

OkayAfrica: You're in media, TV, and Radio, you've done music, and now you're in film. How did all of that happen?

Lolo Eremie: I would say that they're all just different sides to the same coin. If you're creative, you've definitely been exposed to either music, stage theater, film, TV, and [art generally], and for me, it was always in the pipeline that I would make a few films. It's just something I have always wanted to do, mainly because it's also part of my upbringing. I was raised by a man who was a playwright — a lawyer during the day, and at night, he would write plays. He also dabbled in the film industry; he was in a film back in his day, so I guess it's in my DNA.

Why did you decide to work behind cameras instead of in front of them?

I think it's because I'm more introspective. I've always been more of a thinker than a show person, so I don't have a problem not being in front of the camera; I just enjoy the process. My mind is very interesting — or at least I've been told that. I'm also not going to take all the credit for it; I guess it's inherited, going back to my dad again. My uncles came for the premiere [of Tarella], and they told me, "Oh my God, you're your father's daughter," like, this is him.

You co-directed this film with Kayode Kasum; what was that like?

Kayode is a very interesting person. When you first meet him, he's calm on the outside, but he changes when he's working, and it's just interesting to see that transformation. He's very vibrant, interactive, and energetic when interacting with people. I'm the opposite; I am outgoing in specific scenarios, like with my close people, and I'm very chilled when working. So, it was an interesting dynamic, a nice balance.

We went through the scenes and decided who would do specific scenes; that's how we worked. I was also scriptwriting, so sometimes I pointed things out when I felt we were straying a bit too far away from the story, just some basic things and nothing with the directing style.

This film is tied to the supposed African origin of the Cinderella story. How did you find it?

So, I found that out around 2018/2019 while shopping for materials to develop. I decided I wanted to make a fantasy, fairytale story for kids and adults, a Disney type, because I realized we've never had that here in West Africa. While shopping for ideas, I looked at the style of the other old pantomimes and fairy tales we grew up watching, and I came across the Cinderella story while doing my research.

One of the materials I stumbled across was about a Greek writer called Strabo, the author of the original Cinderella narrative about an Egyptian girl circa 30 BC in Egypt. Her name was Rhodopis, and while she was washing her feet at the River Nile, a mythical falcon swooped in and snatched her slipper. She tried to chase the bird, but it flew into the sky and just kept going. Then, the bird flies over Pharaoh's palace and drops the slipper on Pharoah's shoulder while he is taking a walk in his garden.

Pharoah becomes obsessed with the slipper, and after days of being fascinated by the foot shape, he makes the royal decree that all the maidens in the kingdom should come and try out the slipper to find out who it belongs to. He marries Rhodopis, and they fall in love.

The West adopted that story over the years, and the slippers made of reeds became the glass slippers; that's how the story transformed over the decades. So I thought, why don't I tell this story? Why am I looking for stories when I can tell this one?

If you watch the film, the way the story is laid out is not necessarily about this Egyptian girl. We pay homage to her in a certain sequence, but Tarella, who we say is her descendant, carries the same bits of those same slippers, and we connect Rhodopis to Tarella, and that's the first time that any film or story has ever paid homage to her.

Did you plan to go to festivals before cinemas?

Not really. We got to that point where we had options, so we went the festival route. It got many good reviews, and we decided we were finally ready to go to streamers. I don't know if you know this, but streamers have decided that you have to go through the cinema route first, so that's how we're in cinemas.

What are your hopes for the film?

I don't wanna jinx it. I'm open and just excited that we're here.