Dear Ajayi: Interview with Damilola Orimogunje
The New Black Film Collective sat down with filmmaker Damilola Orimogunje for a thoughtful conversation about Dear Ajayi (2026) as an intimate depiction of 1990s Nigerian life. Orimogunje, who directed the Venice Film Festival-premiered film in early September, shares his curiosity about the quiet, more tender moments of family life throughout his filmmaking career, particularly in the portrayal of the silent mother (Lanre Hassan), whose stillness becomes a powerful anchor for the cross-generational dynamic between sisters, Ade and Titi. Orimogunje masterfully captures the natural exchange of emotion households privately experience and brings to viewing audiences a tenderness rarely seen on screen.
TNBFC: My first question is that one of my favourite quotes from the movie is when Titi says music ‘grows, adapts, and changes hands’. I love how your scriptwriting makes music into a breathing and almost tangible entity that means so many different things to different people. For Titi, it becomes a safety net for her throughout the film. Can you talk a little bit more about how you wanted to centre performance art in the film?
DO: Absolutely. Firstly, thanks for doing this. I think it was very important for song itself is a big part of Titi’s life. She gets to say so much that she couldn’t say in reality, and she says it in her music, and that was a driving force to how much we use the songs in the film and also what inspired what kinds of songs we used in the film because she was screaming out loud and asking for help, but nobody could listen and understand what she was saying. Instead, they were clapping and excited and raving for our beautiful voices. I think it was important to use performing arts in the film because I think we’re all living as artists - either we’re practising it or not. The film speaks mainly about ambition, about dreams and all of these things that are, on the surface, seen as things that artists want. But then again, truly, as human beings we all want all of these things. I feel like putting art in that kind of element is showcasing human beings as a canvas where dreams and ambition emanate.
TNBFC: Building on what you mentioned about ambition, how did you manage to balance her vulnerability and ambition to live out her dream as an aspiring singer? How did you develop that aspect of her characterisation?
DO: At the end of the day, she has a character who wants so much in life. Then again, the society and the people alter that. You realise that it’s not exactly about what she wants. It’s not about the duty and responsibility she puts on herself, it’s also the duty and responsibility that society puts on her and it was important to put this in its truest form. Just about what she wants, and what does she get? For me, it was also important to create that character of Titi in a way that she is not seen as a wrongdoing person, so to speak. It is someone who is quite misunderstood. There’s no wrong and right between the two characters - the sisters. It’s someone who I also didn’t want to feel very fierce because that would be the stereotype of seeing such a character.
Then, someone who is human, who is vulnerable, who has blood in her body, who has all this vulnerability and who has feelings. I think it’s more powerful having such a character portray that journey. It puts that mirror in front of us when we see such a character. Who we judge and what we see on the surface in reality. Also, this film is set in the 90s, we have a character who smokes, who has tattoos on her body. It paints her in a very bad light. I feel like all the vulnerability that comes with this character shows us the human aspect of our lives.
TNBFC: I definitely resonate with that. I found the portrayal of Titi so intimate and tender, which I really enjoyed. Over the eight years of development of Dear Ajayi, how did you continue to protect the core integrity of the film - being the complex relationship between Ade and Titi in the context of 90s Nigerian society?
DO: That’s a beautiful question. For me, the most important thing was to tell films that really talk about these characters in an observational way without judgement. I think that has been the core from the first time I thought about the story of two sisters. Even though it took me time to really think about what I wanted to do with it. The eight years gave me the opportunity to develop this film. I will give credit to the labs which have developed this film as well like Ouaga Film Lab, Sud Écriture, Nouveau Marché. These are places [where] I’ve been asked the right questions, and questions which made me think about these characters more. Thinking about what shapes them, what informs who they have been, and also what drives them to be who they are. The clarity of these questions made me understand these characters stronger. For me, clarity was mainly telling this story in a way that feels authentic to the characters without me getting in the way.
TNBFC: Just building on that, all of your shots are so incredibly intentional. Especially in scenes focusing on Lanre Hassan, Ade and Titi’s mother. How did you approach directing her performance?
DO: It was interesting because again I have a little bit of resonance to this character because I grew up with a grandma that was sick, and I grew up seeing and knowing her to be sick. First of all, that’s what inspired in some way the writing of the character in that way. Then again, it also inspired the story because there needed to be a connection between the two sisters. I feel like the dynamics of their relationship and their life changed immediately when their mum comes into the picture. We have this woman who never said a word in the film, but carries so much weight, so much emotion. And also shows us these dynamics between generational women because that is the essence of the film.
We have a woman who has lived a life at the tail end of their life, and then also a middle-aged woman and then, also, a young woman. We see the trajectory of them living the same lives but just at different times because my understanding is I think the two sisters are not exactly opposing of each other. It’s just how they react to the realities of life - to the same reality and the same circumstance of life. The mother represents the tail end of what could be Ade and Titi’s journey in some way in the film.
TNBFC: As the anchor that the mother played to the two sisters throughout the film, the film uses a lot of domestic interiors. In what ways did you use the home as a vehicle to continue to drive the plot forward?
DO: The home is very essential in the film because it’s beyond just a home. It shows the reflection of these characters in their own ways. I feel like, aside from setting the film in the 90s and making the props or the sets to feel very 90s, I wanted it to feel nostalgic. I also wanted it to represent a huge part of their lives. To represent the theme, the film has, in the space of Ade, you could see a lot of emblems that represent fate, which she owns dearly. And then that’s subtly telling us what the film is about in itself without even talking about it.
With Titi, we tried to contrast our own life to feel almost more joyful. The colours are popping in her room. However, we can see the contrast in her life because she has all of this around her world, but then deep inside, she’s not having the same feeling. The goal with the production designer was to, in some way, shape all these themes and all these feelings that these characters go through and be able to contrast them in what we see in reality, which I think is essentially how we are as humans. Our world doesn’t exactly represent how we truly feel inside.
TNBFC: How bigger things affect and reflect how we’re feeling inside is definitely a huge aspect of the film. My final question for you is, I found that the small, everyday moments, even with Ade’s children playing together, made the narrative truly come alive. What inspired you to utilise these quiet interactions to deepen the overall emotional landscape of the film?
DO: I think it’s me observing life. Everyday life is filled with small moments, not the big moments we always see in films. My attraction to cinema has always been representing moments that people think are not so important in films because I feel like the small moments amount to what makes us who we are, and, generally beyond this film, my attraction has always been studying humans in the small things they do. I think that’s what I want to always represent in my films. In this film, it gave me the palette where I’m able to tell these strong stories about these characters but then showcase it in the most silent and also in [a way where] nothing is going on, but a lot is going on. I think it’s my understanding of how to make films, and like I said, because it’s how I feel that we live as humans.
Dear Ajayi is currently playing at Venice Film Festival 2026