Bem Pever’s A Land Apart opens in Nigerian cinemas on October 23 through Nile Entertainment. Set in an alternate Nigeria, the film imagines a country where crude oil never became the foundation of national wealth and agriculture instead drove its economy.
The story follows the Ahura family, owners of an agricultural company whose formula, AX-103, has helped sustain food production across Africa. When the company’s founder is killed before deciding which country should receive the formula, his secret heir, Dooshima, becomes caught in a struggle for control.
Richard Mofe-Damijo leads the cast alongside Princess Mufeedah as Dooshima, Daniel Etim Effiong, Sam Dede, and the late Onyeka Onwenu in one of her final roles. Emil Garuba and Michael Garuba wrote the film. Pever’s previous credits include 4th Republic and Karia.
A Land Apart has already received international recognition. It won Best Feature Film at the 2026 Zanzibar International Film Festival and was selected for the Creative Africa Content Pavilion at Cannes and the Toronto International Nollywood Film Festival.
The film’s premise offers an alternative to Nigeria’s actual economic history. Agriculture once played a major role in the country’s economy before oil became its dominant export and a central source of government revenue. The shift towards oil wealth also brought questions about agricultural investment, food production, and the management of natural resources.
In A Land Apart, that history takes a different turn. Agricultural production and grain exports become central to national power, while control of the company’s formula places the Ahura family at the center of a wider political struggle.
The story raises questions about the choices that shape a nation’s economy and the consequences when control of a valuable resource rests with a small group of people. Its alternate setting also creates room to consider the relationship between food security, economic power, and political ambition.
Speculative storytelling remains a less familiar approach in Nollywood than contemporary dramas and stories rooted in everyday experience. A Land Apart uses alternate history to explore familiar concerns through a different setting, placing agricultural innovation at the center of a political thriller.
Running for 118 minutes, the film combines political intrigue with family drama. A review by Nollywood Times noted that the screenwriters ground the film’s high-concept premise in intimate betrayal and conflicts over legacy, connecting its broader political stakes to the characters’ personal relationships.
With its cinema release, A Land Apart brings its imagined Nigeria to local audiences, using a struggle over agricultural technology and inheritance to explore how resources can shape power and determine who controls a nation’s future.
