HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
This was the year Nollywood made Netflix history.
The Black Book, a revenge thriller from first-time director Editi Effiong became the first-ever Nigerian film to soar to No. 3 on Netflix’s worldwide film charts. The film, made for “just” $1 million (actually a huge sum for a Nigerian movie), garnered 5.6 million views just 48 hours after its Sept. 22 bow on the platform and was watched by more than 20 million people in its opening weeks, breaking Netflix’s Top 10 list in more than 69 countries.
The film stars Nigerian film legend Richard Mofe-Damijo as Paul Edima, a deacon whose dark past returns after his son (Olumide Oworu) is framed for kidnapping by a corrupt police gang and Edima swears revenge.
While critics have dubbed The Black BookNigeria‘s answer to John Wick, the film combines action and its revenge storyline with a primer on Nigerian history, tracing the past 40 years from life under military rule to the current climate, where, in Effiong’s words, “many in the military just changed into civilian clothes and ran for government…
