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Like Ukeje, Nollywood’s Nse Ikpe-Etim stars in South African film

By Shaibu Husseini
13 October 2015   |   10:34 pm
Nollywood actors are beginning to make steady in-roads into the South African movie landscape. Not too long ago, multiple award-winning actor OC Ukeje featured in a lead role in one of South Africa’s biggest feature film, Ayanda which opened the 2015 edition of the Durban International Film Festival and had a side screening at the Cannes Film Festival.
Nse Ikpe-Etim (right) as Magdalene on the set of Sushss

Nse Ikpe-Etim (right) as Magdalene on the set of Sushss

Nollywood actors are beginning to make steady in-roads into the South African movie landscape. Not too long ago, multiple award-winning actor OC Ukeje featured in a lead role in one of South Africa’s biggest feature film, Ayanda which opened the 2015 edition of the Durban International Film Festival and had a side screening at the Cannes Film Festival.

Multiple award-winning Nollywood actress Nse Ikpe-Etim takes her turn and she is currently in Cape Town, South Africa, shooting the film Shussh, based on the novel Whiplash by Tracey Farren. Ikpe-Etim plays Madeleine, a refugee who comes to South Africa after suffering horrific wartime in the Congo. She forms a close bond with Tess, a young sex worker whose life is in turmoil – based by South Africa actress Christia Visser.
“Shussh is such a piercing story and it haunted me for days,” said Ikpe-Etim. “A chance to bring Madeleine to life is truly humbling because there is always that one thing which you know has killed your will to die, for death would be far too easy,’’ she added.

The film is directed by Meg Rickards, who co-directed the award-winning documentary ‘1994: The Bloody Miracle’. According to Rickards “we are delighted that Nse Ikpe-Etim is going to make her South African debut on Shussh.”
The director also said, “she is an extraordinary artist, with subtlety and emotional range. I feel privileged to be working with her to tell a story about breaking the silence around the abuse of women and children – endemic in so many parts of our continent.”

Nse Ikpe-Etim is one of Nollywood’s most sought-after actresses, winning the Africa Magic Viewers Choice Award for Best Actress in a Drama in 2014. She splits her time between Nigeria and the UK, where she lives with her husband and regularly appears on the stage. ‘Shussh’ is her first South African project.

Whiplash, the book on which ‘Shussh’ is based, was short-listed for the Sunday Times Fiction Prize in 2009, and honored by a White Ribbon Award by Women Demand Dignity. The film is produced by Paul Egan and Kim Williams at Boondogle Films, with a female-dominated crew.

The team is planning an outreach project to accompany the film’s release in 2016.
An actress in the professional class, Nse Ikpe-Etim’s upcoming projects also include ‘A Hotel Called Memory’ by Akin Omotoso, currently in production. In the film, Ikpe-Etim plays Lola, a recently divorced woman who meets and falls in love with the charismatic Femi while on a business trip.

At the end of the trip, they part, but Lola wants more and she follows Femi to Cape Town where he lives, hoping to rekindle the fire. Also, Ikpe-Etim will soon grace the screens in ‘Stalker’, a thriller by Moses Inwang in which she plays Kayla, a stylist who will stop at nothing to please her clients.

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