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Re-releasing Nigeria’s Film History: Kulba na barna

KULBA NA BARNA, Brendan Shehu, Nigeria 1992, 35mm, OV/EnS, 104 min
Print from the National Film, Video and Sound Archive (NFVSA) of the Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC), Jos
Sep 2, 2021 19:00  Arsenal Cinema
Introduction: Didi Cheeka (Lagos Film Society)

Nigerian cinema took shape in the western and northern parts of the country under the impact of the petroleum-fuelled boom of the post-war years, insulated from the ravages of a war that was mostly fought in the eastern parts. Some six years ago, the doors to Nigeria’s audiovisual archives housed at the half-abandoned building of the Colonial Film Unit in Lagos opened. Since then, efforts to restore this pre-Nollywood cinema history began with the recovery (and subsequent restoration) of the supposedly lost film SHAIHU UMAR (Adamu Halilu, 1976). It continues with the screening of a recently rediscovered, rare print of KULBA NA BARNA, a film adaption of the homonymous novel written by Umaru Danjuma Katsina in the early 80s. Set in post-independence northern Nigeria the film traces a teenage girl’s descent into an illicit human trafficking ring, dedicated to the sexual exploitation of school girls by the country’s political rich.