Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Nollywood Reporter at the Grand Pa Must Obey press junket on Wednesday, November 19, at FilmOne Cinemas Landmark in Lagos, co-producer Nathaniel Udo said the film was built around themes of forgiveness and the different ways people process grief.
“It’s a story about forgiveness, it’s a story about letting go of words and living again,” Udo said. “It’s a story that speaks about dealing with grief, and people deal with grief in a lot of ways.”
He noted that the film’s core conflict reflects situations familiar to many Nigerian families. “That’s something that’s familiar with us in the society, in families where they’ve lost something, one thing or the other, or lost a loved one in death,” he said. “So that’s why we thought, yeah, this was a great film to make.”
Udo added that the production aimed to offer a family-friendly experience without losing narrative weight. “While we wanted to do a feel-good film, a film where the kids and the parents could watch together, we didn’t want to leave it at that,” he said. “We wanted to tell an actual story. So behind the humour, we wanted people to go home with certain lessons from it.”
He credited the cast with anchoring the shifts between humour and emotion. “The cast also were able to switch from those humorous scenes to scenes where they had to invest themselves emotionally,” Udo said. “Absolute professionals, everyone was there.”
The multigenerational nature of the story also influenced character development, he explained. “Grandpa and maybe the mother come from a generation whereby their discipline is taken more seriously,” he said. “The kids now, they come from a faster generation. Most of their mischief was written in the fact that their emotional needs were not met.”
Cinematographer Ehizoba Chris, making his feature debut as director of photography, discussed the technical challenges on set. He pointed to the kidnap sequence as the most demanding because the location did not match the script’s requirements.
“Because the space we have was not really a forest, it was actually someone’s garden,” Chris said. “We have to make it look like a forest. So the lighting for them was more technical.”
Udo said test screenings helped validate the production team’s choices. “The reaction from both audiences in both situations gives me this satisfaction,” he said. “What we set out to do, we can see that it resonates with the people that are watching it.”
Grand Pa Must Obey, directed by Chibuzor Afurobi and written by Saviour Kings Bob, was released in cinemas on November 21 and is distributed by FilmOne Entertainment.