Directed by Tunde Kelani (Nigeria). Produced by TVE for UNICEF.A striking Nollywood drama, Tunde Kelani's story is a morality tale about what's known as the ‘Dutch effect' - the fact that oil and other resource wealth has often been more of a curse than a blessing in African countries – and for the most vulnerable section of the population in particular. Jimi Bello, a Nigerian bureaucrat, attends an energy conference in neighbouring Ghana - ostensibly to advise his Ghanaian colleagues on how to manage their new oil profits, but in reality to secure a foothold for Nigerian interests in Ghana's oil sector. In his hotel bar, Jimi meets Afua, a student working as a prostitute to pay her college fees. Afua tells him her son is ill, back in her home village. When Jimi insists she take him there to visit, he witnesses first-hand the sickly state of all the village children, who the locals claim are ‘cursed'. Realizing that the new oil pipeline has poisoned the village water supply Jimi's forced to revaluate his agenda in Ghana - and to come to terms with the loss of his own four-year old son as a result of drinking contaminated water in a Nigerian village.
Conceived by renowned African filmmakers from across the continent, filmed on location in Benin, Burkina Faso, DR Congo, Mozambique, Malawi, Nigeria and South Africa, these dramas and documentaries lend an artist’s view to the work undertaken to help countries accelerate progress on child survival across Africa.
