… Premieres at AFRIFF November 3

Jide Okeke’s musical drama Which Way, presented by Bold Pictures, will have its Africa premiere on Tuesday, November 3, at Filmhouse Cinemas, Landmark, Victoria Island, Lagos, as part of this year’s Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF), with its actors singing live on set.

The filmmakers said the decision to record the songs during filming, rather than have actors lip-sync to pre-recorded tracks, was intended to preserve the emotional intensity of the performances.

Speaking about the film, Ayo Alade, who composed its original score and songs and co-produced it, said the approach reflected the story’s focus on a family whose members struggle to express their feelings.

“We wanted the truth of the moment. In this family, people don’t say what they feel,” he said. “The songs are where it finally comes out. If an actor is miming to a recording made weeks earlier, you lose that. So we asked them to sing it there, in the scene, with everything the scene was asking of them.”

The executive producer and founder of Bold Pictures, Jumafor Ajogwu, said the requirement influenced the casting process, as performers had to demonstrate the ability to act and sing simultaneously.

“It decided our casting,” he said. “We were not looking for actors who could also sing, or singers who could also act. We needed people who could do both in the same breath, take after take. That took time, and we were not willing to compromise on it.”

According to Ajogwu, the live-singing approach was intended to capture the immediacy of the actors’ performances. “When you hear a voice break in this film,” he said, “it broke on the day.”

Writer and director Okeke, who won Best Director at the Portugal Indie Film Festival this year, describes the songs as the inner life of the characters. “My film explores the inner thoughts and words unsaid of our characters,” he said. “In a home where no one speaks, the music speaks for them.”

Which Way follows Ladi, played by Floyd Igbo, a Lagos mechanic whose temper is shaped by a brutal childhood. His wife, Beatrice, is played by Chidinma Nebo, while Mariam Kayode plays their teenage daughter, Feyi. The return of Ladi’s sister, Shewa, played by Onome Akpotebu, with a secret from their past, pushes the family towards a reckoning.