THIS IS MY DESIRE
(EYIMOFE)

a film by Arie & Chuko Esiri

FEATURE PRESENTATION

IN-PERSON SCREENING:
JUNE 11, 2022 • 7 PM
@ LIGHT HOUSE ARTS CENTRE
(1800 ARGYLE STREET, HALIFAX)

2020 / NIGERIA / 116 mins

This Is My Desire is the award-winning debut feature film of twin brothers Arie and Chuko Esiri. Shot on 16 mm film, it is a revelatory, hopeful portrayal of everyday strength in contemporary Lagos, Nigeria, that follows a bereaved electrician, Mofe (Jude Akuwudike), and Rosa (Temi Ami-Williams), a hairdresser who works to support her pregnant teen sister.

Destiny grasps these characters as they aspire to better their family lives abroad. Yet broken promises and losses render their own lives as foreign as the lands. These transient positionalities are acutely aware of the narrow, diminishing nature of things as they experience declines in health, resources, and treasured assets.

The Esiris impart how poor governing policies and economic insecurity yield inconstancy, and that this precarity will define our lives as we know it, before we know it. —Fallen Matthews

TRAILER

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

ARIE & CHUKO ESIRI

Arie and Chuko Esiri were born 30 minutes apart in Warri, Nigeria. Growing up in Lagos their mother would put a padlock on the TV in a misguided attempt to make them more studious. Twenty years later, both would enrol at film school. Arie graduated from Columbia University, and Chuko completed his studies at NYU. During their time in New York they collaborated on a pair of short films: AS DESTINY DECIDES (2018), which premiered at the Berlinale, and GOOSE (2017), which had its premiere at the Los Angeles FF. EYIMOFE [THIS IS MY DESIRE] (2020), their first feature film, has played in multiple festivals this year, and won the Ciné+ Distribution Support Prize at Belfort IFF.