The Agbajowo Collective Talk Toronto Player ‘The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos,’ Drop Trailer (EXCLUSIVE)

Burgeoning Nigerian filmmaking force The Agbajowo Collective put an urgent spin on the brutality of forced evictions with their debut feature, “The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos,” screening in Toronto as part of its Centrepiece program touting “compelling stories, global perspectives.” 

Written and directed by the diverse seven-member team of budding and established talents, the narrative follows single mother Jawu (Temi Ami-Williams) as she goes head-to-head with the hired guns doling out a brute force-fate to her waterside village, the story based on the 2017 destruction of informal settlements in the fishing community of Otodo Gbame.

In a first-look trailer shared exclusively with Variety, the village is introduced through a sweeping aerial shot, framing its sutured structures nestled among waterways, several with bright teal and clay-colored tin roofs that shine effortlessly through thick gray skies. An announcement relaying the state’s plan to demolish the village plays in lock-step as the teaser cuts to a hoard of money, neatly wrapped hundred dollar bills stacked high.

Meanwhile, Jawu and her son count their modest earnings by the light of an oil lamp, dedicating each pile to their dreams and necessities – his schooling, her market budget and a new house.

The scenes then mix the high-tension of impending rebellion with shots of the elite and Jawu alike, contrasting their stations in life while leading up to a boisterous communal uprising that culminates in chaos. The title teams with a simmering pride. The film features an oddly tangible serenity, revealing an unsteady but relentless glimmer of hope built into the region. A beauty in the comforts of home is centered in the project that also glimpses a social order built to punish the meek and enrich the corrupt.

A gripping depiction of fierce resistance, the project serves as a tutorial on the power of collective action while simultaneously conjuring an unsettling anger, as dynamic depictions of a populace subjugated to greed-borne demolitions and the careless uncoupling of humanity are displayed in a raw, chaotic fashion.

The film is produced by the Justice & Empowerment Initiatives, Slum Dwellers International, the Nigerian Slum/Informal Settlement Federation, Die Gesellschaft and Raconteur Production, with further support from The Sundance Institute and Berlinale World Cinema Fund. The cast is rounded out by Adebowale “Debo” Adedayo, Gerard Avlessoi, Kachi Okechukwu, Teniola Adelesi, Adosu Segun “Eskim” Segara and Agunto Noray. International Sales are handled by Philipp Hoffman, founder at Germany and Nairobi-based Rushlake Media.

The Agbajowo Collective are Okechukwu Samuel, Ogungbamila Temitope, Bisola Akinmuyiwa, Atinkpo Elijah, Edukpo Tina, James Tayler and Mathew Cerf – film professionals and storytellers, some from the slums and the very community where evictions took place in 2016 and 2017. In tandem with the film’s release, the collective continues to work alongside campaigns to end the destruction of these settlements.

They spoke to Variety ahead of the film’s world premiere on Sept. 7 at Toronto.

Your main characters feel like home – they feel safe, vibrant, kind as opposed to their onscreen oppressors, whose lives feel vacant, superficial. Can you speak to creating that on-screen dichotomy and sense of community?

Creating community on screen was intentional. We sought an authentic approach, working with welcoming and well-organized communities. We had access through deep relationship networks forged over decades of building women-led savings groups and advocacy initiatives through the work of Slum Dwellers International, Justice & Empowerment Initiatives, and the Nigerian Slum / Informal Settlement Federation. Our crew members were also from the same communities, fostering trust and access to family networks.

Access aside, the art of making these communities feel vibrant, safe, and kind is simply to treat the camera, and our characters, as a transparent window. The film’s rendering is the world you encounter, although not the depiction often presented in popular media.

The film highlights a paradox of our time: as wealth increases, so does distance between people. It seems like wealth creation often comes at the expense of others.

How does it feel to take a bit of the control back with this project? 

Slum communities are often portrayed negatively, as hotbeds of crime and foreignness. We wanted to change that narrative.

Slums are essential to cities, providing basic goods and services and a significant portion of the workforce. Without them, cities would quickly collapse. Instead of eradication, we advocate for upgrading slums to improve them and the city as a whole.

This isn’t about handouts or charity. There’s a strong business case for a better-designed city that addresses the needs of its most vulnerable members. Such a city is more resilient and can become a wealth creation powerhouse, unlike cities built on extraction and exclusion, which quickly deplete resources.

The film showcases the power of collective action when it comes to standing up for human rights. What actionable steps toward change do you hope people take away from the film?

We made this film as an act of resistance against the ongoing forced evictions that threaten waterfront communities in Lagos. It’s also a call for solidarity among slum dwellers and marginalized communities worldwide. We share common problems rooted in a system that prioritizes profit over value, extraction over inclusion.

Slum dwellers have organized themselves through cooperatives, small business units based on cooperation and equality. We believe that the only way to survive the climate emergency is to better organize our urban construction and build society on values of cooperation and inclusion.

We urge people to take action and stand against forced evictions. No more thugs using violence to displace people. No more crony capitalists enriching themselves at the expense of the poor. No more corruption and mismanagement of resources. Let’s stand for justice and build the city of tomorrow on a strong foundation.

Is it time to rethink our approach to housing?

When it comes to housing, we often see only two forces at work: the market and the government. However, there’s a middle ground: co-created habitat. Organized communities in Africa are already building their own housing. This is a reality, especially as Africa is the world’s fastest-urbanizing continent.

Most of this growth occurs in the informal sector, so the question isn’t how to manage it, but how to empower it. How can we make informality thrive? By taking the best aspects of self-organized cities and building along their backbone, we can deliver economic value and improve quality of life.

Human rights are indivisible. You can’t have some and not others, and you can’t have them for one group and not another. What happens in Lagos affects people worldwide, from Toronto to Mumbai to Cape Town. We’re all part of the social fabric, and our values need to be based on a new paradigm.

One of the most heartbreaking portions of the film is how easily those in power manipulate those in search of stability into doing their dirty work. Can you speak about those dynamics and the stereotypes associated with those coerced into enforcing these edicts?

In casting the role of gangsters, or “touts” as they’re called in Lagos, we met some fascinating people. Despite their bravado and machismo, these young men have dreams, intelligence, humor and side hustles. While they can sometimes be problematic, they’re fundamentally good people.

Often, at-risk youth are discarded, exploited due to their vulnerability. As seen in the film, we need to view them as our greatest resource. The future is theirs, and we can’t afford to waste them.

During the scriptwriting workshops, participants shared stories of being manipulated by politicians into pre-election violence. We’re trying to portray these “touts” not as one-dimensional villains, but as complex individuals caught in a difficult situation.

There seems to be a vested interest in maintaining the apathy of our young people. This fear stems from the status quo’s concern about a massive youth uprising similar to the Arab Spring.

Africa’s changing, and we need to embrace the voices of young people. The old ways of doing things no longer suffice.