Nigerian filmmaker Hajarat Alli is making her directorial debut with Daddy Bear, a faith-based feature film exploring grief, widowhood, fatherhood and healing within a Muslim family in Nigeria.
The film has wrapped production and is currently in post-production, with support from Africa No Filter’s Entertainment and Media Hubs Program. Written by Alli and co-directed by Alli and Korede Azeez (With Difficulty Comes Ease), Daddy Bear is set in Abuja and follows a father raising his two daughters after his wife’s death.
The story explores fatherhood, caregiving, community and Muslim family life in contemporary Nigeria.
Speaking exclusively with The Nollywood Reporter, Alli discussed the inspiration behind her directorial debut, pointing to what she described as a double standard in conversations around widowhood and widowerhood within her cultural context.
“If the topic is a widow, people say, ‘Let her just concentrate on her children. What else is she looking for?’ But if it is a widower, the conversation is often, ‘Let him remarry quickly for the sake of the children,’” she said.
For Alli, the decision to remarry after losing a spouse should rest with the bereaved parent rather than be dictated by concerns about childcare.
“A parent is a parent, whether mother or father, and should be able to care for their child whether or not the other parent is around.”
She also noted that fatherhood often receives less cultural attention than motherhood, despite the responsibilities involved in raising children. Daddy Bear, she said, was an attempt to tell a story that is rarely represented on screen.
“I wanted to tell a story that is rarely told on screen,” she said.
Working with co-director Korede Azeez, Alli said, allowed them to develop a shared creative vision for the film. As a faith-based project, she also wanted the story to reflect the spiritual and cultural nuances of a Muslim community she believes remains underrepresented in Nollywood.
She described the cast and setting as reflecting the diversity of everyday Nigerian society, with characters drawn from different cultures and linguistic backgrounds.
Beyond writing the screenplay, Alli chose to co-direct so she could remain closely connected to the story she had created while allowing the actors and filmmaking process to influence its development.
“Wearing both hats worked for the story, because I was able to stay closely connected to what I had imagined while writing it, while also discovering new things through the actors and the filmmaking process,” she said.
A central goal of the project, Alli said, was to portray Muslim characters as fully realised people navigating ordinary experiences rather than reducing them to religious stereotypes.
She emphasised that Muslim men, like other men, can be fathers and caregivers, and that religious identity should not be used to excuse a failure to participate in domestic responsibilities. She said the expectation should apply equally to Nigerian men more broadly.
“Daddy Bear does not follow some of the common Nollywood tropes,” Alli said, explaining that the film departs from familiar patterns in the way its characters are written and how the story resolves.
Her aim, she said, was to present Muslim characters whose faith remains an important part of their lives without overshadowing their humanity.
Alli credited Africa No Filter’s support with helping the production secure the resources needed to complete filming. She said the backing also strengthened the project’s ability to reach audiences interested in stories about contemporary African families, faith, fatherhood and gender expectations.
“It reinforced the idea that stories about contemporary African families, faith, fatherhood and gender expectations deserve to be supported and seen,” she said.
“The opportunity helped turn Daddy Bear from a story we had been developing for years into a completed film that we can now take to audiences and communities beyond the people who made it.”
Alli also acknowledged the collaborators who supported the project, including co-director Korede Azeez and producer Fuchi Nwaturuocha, whose commitment she said helped keep the project moving before the external funding came.
She also thanked Bola Agbaje, a British playwright and screenwriter who served as the film’s script consultant.
Daddy Bear is currently in post-production, with details about its release yet to be announced.
