With ‘Over the Bridge,’ Tolu Ajayi Has Cemented His Perceptive Voice in Nollywood

The film makes its North American debut at the New York African Film Festival this week. With this year marking the festival’s 31st anniversary, Ajayi’s film is showing alongside a stellar lineup, including London Recruits — about a group of international students working as undercover freedom fighters during apartheid. That film, also making its North American premiere, will screen at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on May 29, co-presented by OkayAfrica.

In Over the Bridge, a man’s battle with integrity, in a corporate world that overlaps with the depraved Nigerian political scene, sets him off on an internal journey of purpose and self-doubt. Unlike most political commentary films out of Nollywood, Ajayi shies away from making the messaging in this film apparent. Lesson are implied, left as imperceptible messages that rope their recipients in without their knowledge. It’s a film that trusts its viewers with a sense of discernment.

Over the Bridge bagged 12 nominations in this year’s Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards, making it one of the two films with the most nominations in this edition — the second, being C.J. Obasi’s Mami Wata.

With stellar, accurately moody cinematographic direction by KC Obiajulu, whom Ajayi gave ample creative control, Over the Bridge unfolds like poetry. The scenes are filled with muted seething, a blanket of unrest sitting in every frame, as insinuations and unspoken gestures carry the most important parts of this film. For instance, when we first learn of the rift between Folarin and his wife, Jumoke, it is revealed in a simple mirror shot, with neither of them speaking.

Ajayi spoke with OkayAfrica about what went into making Over the Bridge. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

OkayAfrica: This is your debut as a director of a feature film. What did you find the most daunting about the experience, and what did you find the most rewarding?

Tolu Ajayi: While making this film, I was putting pretty much a lot of eggs in one basket. And I'm super happy that it's paying off. It took a lot of heart, but I'm happy that a lot of my team agreed with the essential part of what we were trying to do. There was so much confidence and belief in what we were doing together and that made the task much less daunting.

What feeling were you hoping to convey with the cinematography?

The idea was to create the feeling of being alone and in your head. The internal feelings of dissociation were important, as a large part of the film has to do with the character's mental capacity. One of the key things we wanted to do was for the film to both be internal and have external things people know. Especially with such an intimate character that the characters in the film don't really know very well, but the audience is getting to know.

Over the Bridge makes astute comments on greed, integrity, and uncertainty but also a range of quiet, often indecipherable emotional moments, what led you in that direction?

I've been a part of corporate for a while. I got to inhabit certain spaces where I was able to observe the corporate mentality. Something I've observed is that certain notions and ideas from very well-meaning people sometimes can be a part of the problem. Sometimes you might have a dream in Nigeria, and that dream may involve collusion and you will find yourself mixed up. The uncertainty and that sense of quiet despair come from seeing that dream contort itself into something else. It just sort of leads you to see that there isn’t anything that can't be touched by the hands of other people's ideas, or other people's greed. And that's where the challenges come from; that you're not untouchable within the system that we currently inhabit.

You and Ozzy Agu make such a great pairing. You did tell him to go deeper into character while you were working together, what were you hoping he would find?

Ozzy [Agu] is a great partner to have on a film because he comes with a process. The character needed to carry that quiet despair men feel, because a large part of masculinity is shouldering pressures and just going through it by yourself. That aspect of all of it was something that we wanted to tell with a character who seems vulnerable. One of the things he does internally, which we discussed, is he builds his character from within. So he doesn't just do things. He does things that he feels the character will do. He's able to say, ‘Okay, this is what the character is doing right now.’ As he finds a way to make it that character's behavior, it's never anything out of sync.

What does the future look like for you?

I want to continue on this path of making films that grab your heart and take you along. I want to do biopics, films about people we didn't know, and films based on my experiences and those of things I've observed in the world. I have a slate of films I want to share.