What happens when two storytellers with the same creative pulse come together to make a film?
You get something as layered and emotionally resonant as ‘What’s Left of Us’, the first film in the Zikoko Life anthology series that explores marriage, autonomy and the quiet battles inside Nigerian homes. Written by Victor Daniel and co-directed by him and his long-time collaborator Olamide Adio, the film is a masterclass in shared vision, cultural nuance and bold storytelling.
In this conversation, the duo unpacks the multi-draft journey behind the script, the creative push-and-pull of co-directing, and why some stories need to provoke to truly shift culture.
Can you tell us how you co-write and direct a film? I don’t think it’s something I’ve seen a lot of.
Victor Daniel: First of all, I think it’s easy for us to do that because of our existing relationship. We’ve known each other for a while and realised we shared similar creative visions, so that kind formed the basis of our partnership.
Typically, what we do is that we spend our time talking about a project, what we like, what we hate, casual banter, and by the end of the conversation, we find that we are very aligned on what we want to do with it. Olamide brings his ideas, and I bring mine. At the end, we would have decided who takes the front seat and who runs the co-pilot.
How does this feed into the creative process?
Victor Daniel: There are a lot of things we have to run before getting on set, so we’d normally do that together. If I’m taking the lead on writing the script, Olamide reviews and vice versa. We’d also work together on things like casting and shortlisting. Even with directing, people have always asked how we can do it together, but it just comes naturally to us. Our main focus is alignment at all times.
Olamide Adio: It feels like we share a creative brain at this point. Like Victor said, we’d usually decide on who takes the lead for writing the script and move on together from there. For What’s Left of Us, Victor took the lead on that. If I’m reading it to review, I’d pay attention to things like structure, the narrative, texture and share my thoughts. We’re normally confident that we’d be happy with what the other person does in our absence. Like Victor said, we’ve known each other for a long time. We met in a writer’s group and have been together ever since.
Let’s talk about ‘What’s Left of Us’. What were your initial thoughts about the story, and how did it affect writing and directing the film?
Olamide Adio: The original article that inspired this story was based on this couple who had an open marriage, and the content was really jarring. It reminded me of when people say real life is stranger than fiction. When we were working on the script, we had to tone down some of what was in the original story because it was culturally shocking. We had to put it through a treatment phase, which happens often with adaptations. It’s like looking at the work before turning it into a script. So we had to take out a lot of what we had included to make writing the script easier.
Victor Daniel: One thing that stood out to me throughout the process was the cultural sensitivity of the film and the clarity of our vision for where we hope it can go.. So many things were shocking about it, which then fed into the tension in the film. So, what we did sometimes was that if we decided not to include some of the jarring scenes in the story, we would focus on the undercurrent or tension so people see what we’re trying to communicate.
This issue that the couple had, on what number of children to have and the wife getting into family planning without her husband’s knowledge, is common among Nigerians. We see arguments on these issues every day, men with economic power trying to bully their wives into doing things. So, we decided that if we didn’t emphasise their open relationship, we could shed more light on this part. It was honestly quite difficult; the script went through 13 drafts before we decided it was okay.
Wow, 13 drafts are a lot. Were there other parts you thought it necessary to include in the film?
Olamide Adio: To answer your question, we wanted to put every part of the initial story in the film. But like Victor said, some things were culturally sensitive. We felt we had to emphasise issues like bodily autonomy. Also, financial emancipation. What we did was look at the story and settle on themes that felt central to marriage. In Nigeria, for example, a woman asserting bodily autonomy is unforgivable. Because of that perception, it became important to us, especially because we’re speaking about women’s bodies.
How did you settle on the title ‘What’s Left of Us’?
Victor Daniel: I think the most difficult part of making a film is finding a fitting title. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you get it just when you finish writing; other times, it comes naturally. If you’re unlucky, you could spend 13 hours thinking of a title with the rest of your team once the script is done.
With this one, the title came very naturally. When we worked on the first draft, most of it was in dialogue and by the end, it was like, what was left? So we have this couple who’ve been through so much and now have gotten to a crossroads where they need to decide what’s left of the marriage. The question came after the last full stop in the script. Is there anything left to do?
Why did the story end the way it did?
Olamide Adio: Our ending is sort of how Victor and I like to do things. We want to either put a full stop, which makes things definite, or an ellipsis, which, for me, is more powerful because it allows room for questions. With What’s Left of Us, we don’t know what happens next. It’s like she’s dropped this bombshell, but how do things go? Do they go to court? Does he concede? It’s really asking the question of what’s left of the couple after this.
Victor Daniel: I think ending it on Mariam’s strong side was really important, especially because of how the film started. That progression of her seeming weak in the beginning to now having a stronger voice was very important. We didn’t want her to remain a victim throughout the film.
What was the casting process like? The characters seemed to fit into their roles seamlessly.
Victor Daniel: Funny enough, we had some issues with casting. We were very particular about finding people from northern backgrounds to fill the roles. We wanted to make it as authentic as possible. But being in Lagos meant limited options. We had 3 or 4 people auditioning for one role instead of 15 or 30 people. When we saw Caleb and Tolu’s audition tapes, we were shocked that they weren’t northern because they were very, very convincing. I think our minds were particularly blown when we started shooting because of the quality of their acting and interpretation.
It was even more surprising because Caleb, the actor who plays Aliyu, is the complete opposite of Aliyu. Sometimes you can barely even hear him when he talks. So, we were shocked and loved him when he got into the role. So yeah, we were very lucky to find them.
Olamide Adio: Yeah, it was really shocking because we didn’t expect it at all. However, I think it’s also what you should expect. At the end of the day, he’s an actor, and that’s his job. There were some scenes that were very interesting to direct because of how much we didn’t expect.
Also Read: Caleb Richards on Playing the Toxic Husband in “What’s Left of Us”
Aliyu makes a lot of assumptions in the film. Do men or people actually think like this in real life?
Olamide Adio: Some men do. We can’t really make a general remark, but there are a lot of people who think that, for example, if a lady wants to use a condom, it’s because she has multiple partners. Some people also think sex is more enjoyable without a condom, which is not correct, but there are educated and uneducated people who think like this.
Victor Daniel: I think a lot of men think like that because they don’t get to bear the biggest responsibility of having unprotected sex, which is pregnancy. Men want to have sex and leave the burden of dealing with whatever comes out of it, whether STDs or pregnancy, to the women. I think they also say that to gaslight women sometimes.
In writing the characters, were there traits you included that weren’t in the story, but you felt were necessary to include?
Olamide Adio: Definitely. We’re trying to push out a universal message, so we had to research the issues, including films exploring similar themes. I think that’s part of the beauty of cinema, that it references itself. There were areas where we felt we needed to tone down certain traits because of what we’d seen in other films. Especially, the last scene after getting home from the Imam. We had to work on building up moments of conflict so they reflected how it would naturally occur in marriage. So yes, we needed to play with personalities and tone to build intensity.
Some of it also showed how easily some of these traits crumble. So, at the end of the film, we see Aliyu kind of concedes before erupting again.
How do you think people will receive Mariam, especially because of her stubbornness and doggedness?
Victor Daniel: I don’t expect Mariam’s character to be popular, especially in the northern community and among men. But to be honest, we also don’t really care. Art is supposed to provoke people, and we owe it to ourselves to tell the stories we believe are true. We can’t control how the characters are perceived. I also think people will receive Mariam wholeheartedly. I would even be glad if she became unpopular because of her radicalism. We want to use her to inspire that and how women think of themselves.
Olamide Adio: We can’t control what happens after the film is released, but I hope it’s provocative like Victor said. That’s where change starts from. Provoking people and having conversations, saying this is how it feels here, is that how it feels there too? So yes, she won’t be very popular, but we hope she sparks something.
What was your experience, writing and directing ‘What’s Left of Us’, especially having to write an unlikeable male character?
Victor Daniel: I think any intelligent and self-conscious person can understand power dynamics in any relationship. I’m married, so I know the kind of conversations that are important for people to have. Deciding on the number of children to have is one of them, and knowing that the person who has the final say on that is the one whose body will be affected is also important. In fact, these conversations happen all the time, especially in heterosexual relationships; the only issue is that men always seem to have the final say. The reason why it’s like that is obviously because of the type of society we live in and the overwhelming economic and social advantage men have, even on issues that affect only women. For us, it was mostly seeing what would happen in societies like ours where the man wanted something and the woman didn’t.
Olamide Adio: Another thing would be knowing that a lot of patriarchal men lack a general sense of self-awareness, mainly because the power they have isn’t earned. When things are handed to you like that, there’s usually a lack of self-awareness. But then the responsibility is now on you to build it and let go of it. Even letting go can be difficult sometimes because it’ll feel like an erosion of yourself instead of concessions in basic human relationships.
Thank you. What would you then say is the key message of What’s Left of Us?
Victor Daniel: Bodily autonomy and economic power. Those were the two things we were trying to focus on. The disparity between men and women in economic power and how men use that as a tool to control their marriages. Even though we’re a long way from solving it, it was just really important for us to point these issues out. We want people to see the sort of things that happen in marriages.
Which did you prefer doing, writing or directing, What’s Left of Us?
Olamide Adio: I don’t know if I really enjoyed the writing process because, like we said, there were about 13 drafts, but I definitely enjoyed directing. If I were to pick a favourite scene, it would have to be the last one. Seeing the work come together was also very rewarding for us.
Victor Daniel: Well, like I said, the first draft was very radical, and we ran through so many by the end of the day, I was just excited to be done writing. Even the directing process can be a lot, because we spend the whole day on set. The most rewarding thing for me has to be seeing the performance. When we say ‘ACTION!’ and you see the actors and actresses embody the roles in a way you didn’t even conceptualise. Shooting and seeing the result comes with a sense of fulfilment, like wow, look at what we’ve made. It’s thoroughly enjoyable.
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