A tale of a teenager who yearns to grow up took an unexpected turn from conception to the screen, and it is one of the projects in the MultiChoice Talent Factory West Africa Class of 2023.
GROWN is the 2024 fantasy-drama starring a spoiled teenager who hates her mother and is desperate to be an adult. The desire is fulfilled most unexpectedly: she awakens 31 years older and has to become somehow young again.
The trio behind the story are three emerging African storytellers, Nosa Isibor, Boakye D. Alpha and Uyioghosa Etinosa, whose varied creative backgrounds converged in the production of the film.
GROWN is the result of the MultiChoice Talent Factory, a program that has been created to train and introduce new African filmmakers to the various elements of film and television production. The project served as a conduit for the three writers and the larger creative team to further flesh out the story in the form of a feature film.
Nosa Isibor is a filmmaker and writer whose expanding list of screenwriting credits includes GROWN and Guess Who. Her work on this project is another step in a broader creative path built on her formal training and practical time behind the camera.
Joining the writing team is Ghanaian writer and filmmaker Boakye D. Alpha, with a wider literary background. He’s a Global Voices Scholar at the University of East Anglia and has written in poetry, prose, creative nonfiction and screenwriting. He is also a filmmaker and creative entrepreneur, often exploring themes of identity and the experiences of underrepresented voices.
Uyioghosa Etinosa has also come from a diverse background to filmmaking. She is said to be a creative artist, an actress and a sound recordist for film; she has worked in performance and sound. She has recorded music for short films, documentaries and for Africa Magic.
The combination of these three creative perspectives is particularly fitting for a film centred on growing up and identity. The core of GROWN is a common teenage fantasy: that adulthood will provide us with liberty and correct the injustices of childhood. The movie makes that desire into a fantasy and leaves its heroine to deal with the repercussions of having what she desired.
The film was written by Nosa Isibor, Boakye D. Alpha and Uyioghosa Etinosa and directed by Ola Jegede. Efe Irele, Bobby Ekpe, Myde Glover, Najite Dede, Oluwaseyi Akinso, Halimat Ganiyu, Sarah Obiekwe, Yemi Cregx and Jane Efagwu are among the cast.
When GROWN debuted on Africa Magic in 2024, it represented a big turning point for the new creative crew as they stepped away from development workshops and into commercial film projects.
The movie’s path also highlights the importance of co-created stories in Africa’s growing creative economy. GROWN is the product of multiple creative minds, writers, actors, directors, sound and other production talents all coming together to create one finished story.
The movie marks a major screen credit for Isibor, Alpha, and Etinosa, and another milestone in their careers, which are not limited to one genre.
They all have unique routes to filmmaking, but GROWN unites them in one common theme: what happens when you get what you want before you’re ready?
The premise of the film is that question. It is a collaboration between three emerging writers that makes it a story.
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By Omolara Adekayode
