93 Days, the Ebola movie, gulped N400m, says producers

93 Days, the Ebola movie, gulped N400m, says producers

Monday, August 15, 2016 3:10 pm


Bolanle Austen-Peters (2nd right) and others at the press screening of the movie in Lagos recently

Bolanle Austen-Peters (2nd right) and others at the press screening of the movie in Lagos recently


93 Days
, a movie based on the Nigeria’s effort to battle the Ebola disease of 2014, is a N400 million budget production, says its producers.

Speaking at a private screening of the movie at Filmhouse Cinemas, Surulere, Lagos last Thursday, 11 August, Bolanle Austen-Peters, one of the producers, said the estimated figure makes it the third most expensive movie ever produced in Nigeria.

Half of a Yellow Sun, an adaptation of Chimamanda Adichie’s book had an estimated budget of N1.27 billion, while The CEO, a movie by Kunle Afolayan had a budget of $2 million — over N600 million at the current exchange rate.

Austen-Peters stated that the original names of the Ebola victims were used and some of the scenes were shot at the original locations. “There are so many important stories in Nigeria that could be told but because of lack of funding, we can’t tell these stories; Ebola is one of them. The movie title is simply the numbers of days Nigeria battled Ebola from when Sawyer arrived Nigeria to the day Nigeria was declared Ebola free by the World Health Organisation (WHO),” she said.

Adding, Dotun Olakunri, co-producer of the movie said on the possibility of political opposition to the movie, he hopes there would be none from any quarter.

“We hope that politically, nobody will step into this because this is not about politics it’s about arts and history. Lagos State gave us support. We tried to show in the film how the Lagos State government reacted very quickly in a positive manner to transform the wards because we were not expecting Ebola. We hope that we portrayed Lagos state in a very good light because Lagos state and federal government came together and did a positive thing,” Olakunri said.

93 Days tells the story of the roles played by medical practitioners in containing the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).

The movie gives a detailed account of the roles played by doctors at First Consultant Hospital, Lagos State and Federal Government and the WHO in containing the disease which was eradicated after 93 days.

One of the movie’s main characters is Stella Ameyo Adadevoh, a doctor at First Consultants Hospital, Obalende, Lagos, who made the ultimate sacrifice to ensure that the deadly Ebola was curtailed and prevented from spreading around the cosmopolitan city of Lagos.

She would eventually die from the disease, which was brought into the country by Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian-American.

Adadevoh’s sacrifice, bravery and commitment to her job averted a potential large scale spread of the virus.

Directed by Steve Gukas, 93 Days stars Hollywood actors, Danny Glover and Tim Reid alongside Nigeria’s best including Bimbo Akintola, Keppy Ekpeyong Bassey, Bimbo Manuel, Tina Mba, Charles Okafor, Gideon Okeke, Somkele Idhalama and many others.

The movie, 93 Days will be in cinemas across Nigeria from 19 September.


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