The bustling Nigerian film industry known as Nollywood certainly keeps directors busy: In the past decade, Daniel Oriahi has made over 25 movies. But the filmmaker hit a new career breakthrough when the Tribeca Festival accepted his latest, “The Weekend,” a simmering thriller about in-laws with nightmarish appetites.
The selection brings the 41-year-old director welcome recognition after years of churning out movies. “You’re like, ‘Where does it end?’” Oriahi said of the relentless pace. “The Weekend,” premiering Sunday, is intended as a polished, genre-bending departure from Nollywood quickies, and it screens in the mature-themed Midnight section of the festival, which runs Wednesday through June 16.
Oriahi’s debut feature in 2013 was a psychological thriller called “Misfit,” and he scored a breakthrough hit in 2015 with the action comedy “Taxi Driver: Oko Ashewo,” set in the Nigerian capital, Lagos.
Oriahi’s love of movies dates back to his childhood in the small town of Ewu when he drew comics of films like “Die Hard with a Vengeance” and watched Steven Spielberg pictures on cable television. After attending film school in Nigeria, he founded his own production company, meeting demand with supply.
In “The Weekend,” normal tensions escalate to grisly demands as Nikya (Uzoamaka Aniunoh) and her fiancé, Luke (Bucci Franklin), grapple with his cheery but profoundly unsettling family. In a video interview, Oriahi spoke about keeping the audience on tenterhooks, the challenges of Nollywood and his filmmaking heroes. The conversation has been edited and condensed.
What attracted you to this story?
I haven’t had the opportunity to make necessarily big-budget films, and in the Nigerian landscape, “The Weekend” is seen as a high-budget film. Such films are rare to come by. But I pride myself as a filmmaker who wants to make films that are seen, so I’ve made a lot of stuff for local streamers. Over time, I have discovered I am drawn to narratives that have dysfunctional family dynamics. I come from a country where it’s very dysfunctional, to be honest.
The whole country?
Yeah! We have this colonial past, you know, and that has shaped the way the country is. But besides the family dysfunction, I am drawn to films that deal with trauma. When I got the script, I liked that you had characters that wanted something but weren’t being honest about why. And it can get messy when you find yourself in a relationship with somebody who has family dynamics like in the film.
I grew up watching Roman Polanski films, like “Rosemary’s Baby.” “Hereditary,” too, is an amazing film. I recently saw “The Wailing.” It morphs into so many things: It starts like a thriller, then it’s looking like a zombie movie. I’ve never really seen it done in Nigeria with a Nigerian approach. I could sense that the world is eager to watch films that are not branded as one genre. I want to make films like that, that have many layers and that people can watch and relate to from different perspectives.
You bring a lot of experience from directing so many movies. You probably saw the news about Roger Corman ——
Yeah! That really hit me because Corman was one of those filmmakers that I always used to console myself, because this is the king of B movies, and so many great filmmakers had their first breakthrough from this guy. So I always used to tell myself that the whole Nollywood space is like Roger Corman: Make a lot of cheap, quick films to survive, but you are finding your voice and your style as you go along. Film school is great. I went to a film school. I taught at a film school. But some things you learn on the job.
Just even the idea of working in Nigeria — it’s very chaotic. You have to deal with power setbacks, with shortages in gas and petroleum. You have to deal with external elements that will affect how this film is going to come out, and how do you maintain your voice? Even “The Weekend,” I think, we shot in less than 18 days. Because of the way we make films in Nigeria, people are jumping from one set to the next. You have to have a laser focus.
“The Weekend” works off a slow-burn before things get wilder. How do you maintain the tension?
So the acting orientation in the Nollywood space is very dramatic — it comes from television, so you have to be dramatic, melodramatic, use your body. I told everybody: restraint. Just hold it back. And when they are having a conversation with another person, they should be aware that they are holding onto some information. So don’t give it away by body mannerisms or tone of speech. That influenced my casting: the actress who plays the lead has an unassuming face where you can’t tell what she’s thinking.
The family’s workings also suggest a sinister patriarchal side to the society.
Yeah, I’m thinking about that now, because when I came back to Nigeria recently, I was noticing very clearly how it’s so male dominated. I was uncomfortable with the kind of interactions that happen. And in “The Weekend,” in the dinner scene, you have a character making condescending comments about women. I remember when we were cutting it and getting different shots of people responding, the editor took a man’s response to the comments as the next shot. And I was like, no, it shouldn’t be a guy, it should be the women reacting. Let’s make it a long shot and see how each woman reacts to it in that space.
You’ve mentioned some international influences, but could you share some Nigerian filmmakers who you like?
Oh yeah! The first person that comes to my mind is Michael Omonua. He’s part of a collective of filmmakers that call themselves the Surreal16. C.J. Obasi made “Mami Wata,” which was the rare Nigerian film to be at Sundance and won the cinematography award last year. Abba Makama really strikes me as an interesting filmmaker, and Ema Edosio is amazing. Jade Osiberu has a deal with Amazon Prime.
I think I’m gravitating to filmmakers who are not boxing themselves in. We’re making films with our own distinct voices and they are being accepted internationally. Because that’s always been the desire, to make a film that can travel.