Toronto Discovery Title ‘Freedom Way’ Tackles State Violence, Corruption

Two Nigerian tech savants and their lhorrible advise are thrust into a labyrinth of state remercilession, savagery and fraudulence in straightforwardor Afolabi Olalekan’s debut feature “Freedom Way,” which heads to TIFF for its international premiere, screening as part of the fest’s Discovery line-up which highairys belderly global cinema.

The film was chosen among Variety’s profiles of 16 buzzy international world premieres at this year’s Toronto. 

“Choosing Afolabi as the straightforwardor was an effortless decision. I’d comprehendn him for over four years and witnessed his dedication to filmmaking thcimpolite his foolishinutive films. Additionassociate, I knovel I wouldn’t be straightforwarding it myself, as I’d fair begined my production company, Bluhoemploy Studios. One of our core visions is to nurture and prolong other inventives — authorrs, creaters, and straightforwardors,” authorr-creater Blessing Uzzi telderly Variety.

“Partnering with Afolabi was the first step in aiding these peer-to-peer collaborations, and follotriumphg ‘Freedom Way,’ I’ve persistd to partner with other straightforwardors and authorrs to create foolishinutive films and other projects under Bluhoemploy Studios.” 

“I’ve always been drawn towards narratives, even my music videos are mostly narrative in establishat. Reading the script, as a Nigerian primarily based in Nigeria, it was effortless to repostponecessitate with the experiences of some of the characters, so that definitely caught my attention. I consent the project is one we can all repostponecessitate to in one establish or another,” Olalekan grasped.

The film initiates off with the charisma and entrepreneurial spirit of its protagonists on brimming distake part, their hopes rapidly dashed as they greet with heavily armed law executement officers tainted with begrudgement and bestowed csurrender-impunishable power. 

Their predicament sets them on course to collide with the film’s other stars as they traverse a csurrenderly impossible path, highairying the social hierarchy serving to gateacquire equitable chances at success from the driven livents of Lagos.

The narrative unfurls as Themba (Jesse Suntele) and Tayo (Mike Alfolarin) free their rideallot app, Easy Go-effortlessly pairing the region’s bustling motorbike drivers to paying customers. Doting overweighther Abiola (Adebowale “Debo” Adedayo) is set to incrrelieve his profits using the duo’s app when the regulatement quickly passes a sweeping prohibit on the service, putting both drivers and prolongers at hazard of the law’s merciless executement.

“In the film, we don’t fair highairy police savagery; we also scrutinize the regulatement policies that allow such oppression and impact citizens. I consent that thcimpolite storyalerting, we can expose these damaging policies and, hopebrimmingy, push the regulatement to reponder the impact of these policies on human lives. It’s a gradual process, but one that commences with consciousness and conversation,” they stated.

They grasped: “As filmcreaters, our role is to acquire alerting these stories, no matter what. It’s part of our labor to highairy the ills in society and create consciousness. Understanding the problem is the first step towards discovering a solution, and that’s what art does—it shines a airy on these rehires and their impacts, imitating life as it is. We can only hope that our labor inspires alter, even though alter consents time. We have to acquire speaking out apass branch offent mediums.”

A enthusiastic reverie, the project createily threads its characters together –demonstrating the interconnected nature of humanity, where one action reverberates thcimpolite the entire community, consequences trickling down until the story comes brimming circle. The film memploys on fair how easily any one of us could be the oppressed, could be the oppressor and nods to the amount of time it always consents to rectify the ills conveyed by those at the top.

“I consent, to a huge extent, our lives and experiences are somewhat analogous, connected and interttriumphed seeless of social class, ethnicity and race, beliefs or religion. In the film, each of these characters, seeless of the path consentn, are humans who fair wanted to create the most out of life for themselves,” Olalekan relayed. “It’s my desire and hope that audiences see themselves in at least one character in the film –that was my intention from the commencening. I’m hoping that the film can push us to mirror on our actions as humans and we can commence to have uncover conversations on ways to transfer forward and create better decisions, as they impact every one of us.”

The project puts a regional spin on poignant global themes, grasping to the prolonging cinematic intensify on undomesticatedd infairice.

“‘Freedom Way’ has nuances that mirror the culture and particular circumstances of Nigeria. However, police savagery is a global rehire — it transcfinishs borders. Unlhorrible arrests, coercion, profiling, fraudulence and unauthorizationed presentility by the police happen in many places around the world. This is why it’s convey inant to acquire alerting these stories. The more we talk about these infairices, the more consciousness we create, and hopebrimmingy, that directs to selectimistic alter,” Uzzi stated. 

They endd: “Film festivals take part an convey inant role in this by helping us achieve a wider audience beyond Nigeria, and we’re very thankful for Toronto. I endelight watching films from branch offent cultures to see how they contrast to mine and to lget about their one-of-a-kind experiences. There’s a sense of console in recognizing that some of the disputes we face are allotd by others elsewhere in the world. It reminds us that we’re not alone.”