Taiwo Egunjobi Returns With Fire—And a Moth

With over a decade of experience in the industry, Taiwo Egunjobi has carved out a distinct place for himself as one of Nigeria’s most compelling independent filmmakers. His creative roots run deep, from screenwriting and film criticism to hands-on production, all of which converge to shape his identity as a true Nollywood auteur. Far from being a passive observer, Egunjobi is deeply immersed in the evolving cinematic landscape, bringing a thoughtful, multilayered approach to his work.

This year marks his second selection at the prestigious Nollywood Week Film Festival, where his latest film, The Fire & the Moth, will screen, a milestone that underscores his artistic growth and commitment to storytelling.

Culture Custodian recently caught up with Egunjobi to discuss the inspirations behind his newest project, his creative identity, and his ever-evolving perspective on the state of Nigerian cinema.

The Fire & the Moth marks your second premiere at the Nollywood Week Film Festival in Paris. What does returning to this stage say about your growth as a filmmaker since your first screening here?

I had a feeling I was going to get into this festival when I made The Fire & the Moth. Every festival has its own energy, vibe, brand, and central themes. So I always knew that this festival would be a good fit for my film. I had been doing a lot of self-introspection and self-development to see blind spots in my approach to work, storytelling, photography, and other things. So I was quite confident. And I wish we were able to go to more festivals, but we have to go and get released on one of the streamers, Amazon Prime Video specifically. So that cut short our festival rounds. 

Your films often explore themes of duality, a thread that continues in the very title, The Fire & the Moth. In what ways does this new work build on or break away from the thematic concerns you’ve explored since A Green Fever?

Thematically, there are very few things that interest me, and those are the kinds of things that emerge in my work. I’m very interested in the nature of men, in the sense of character and what those characters do. What choices do these characters make in certain situations? I usually use that as a commentary on what I see in my society, the people of my society, and about how dark choices often produce certain types of outcomes. I’m always interested in those types of dark choices and those outcomes as a commentary on my society. The Fire & the Moth is largely about retribution. It’s about vengeance. It’s about judgment.

You’ve previously expressed a preference for filming in Ibadan. What does the city offer creatively or ideologically that other locations don’t?

This film was filmed 99.8% in Ibadan. Ibadan is a space that I understand and know very well. I’ve come to associate my storytelling visuals, or should I say the pictures forming in my mind when I make stories often with the backdrop I grew up around, which is Ibadan. And that’s how my stories emerge. Additionally, there’s a lot about Ibadan that aligns with me. Ibadan has some sort of energy that is a bit more artistic in the sense of the institutions that have been there colonially and post-colonially. It has much more of a contemplative energy to it, especially when you go around the literary or literacy communities. In many ways, it’s not as intense as Lagos,  the film culture is not as aggressive as it would be in Lagos, where if you shoot on the streets, you have thugs who will disturb you every minute of the time. The city allows someone like me to operate a little bit more contemplatively and more patiently. 

From All na Vibes to Green Fever, and The Fire & the Moth, what would you say has shifted most in your directorial approach?

When I did All Na Vibes, there were certain methods I tried to use in how I photographed and structured that story. And in many ways, I questioned some of those methods later. I don’t want to get too technical on that, but it took me making a short film in between to really find myself again, a short film called Crushed Roses. I went back to my roots with style, and that was what I had done earlier with my first-ever film called In Ibadan. I’m learning more about how to tell stories in more efficient ways, how to use the camera better, and how to conceive characters in much better ways. There are still a few more levels that I can see and I know I have to get to, but I can feel myself getting a bit more of a grasp on some of these things like visual control.

With several of your films now selected for film festivals, how important would you say a film festival is to a filmmaker?

It depends on what goals the filmmaker has. For me, it’s always been important for me to put my films out there. Firstly, when we were starting out, the only places we felt we could put our films for people to see were festivals, no cinema was interested in such films back then. So festivals were just the available film exhibition models available for us. If you’re an emerging filmmaker or you don’t have the biggest actors or the most blockbuster-ish stories, you may just find yourself at festivals presenting your films to audiences there. It’s a great way to get into global recognition, into the right circles where international critics and journalists can begin to talk to you and you begin to form an international profile for yourself. 

As Nollywood continues to evolve globally, how do you see your work contributing to that growth? And how has international reception influenced your creative identity?

I would say I’ve been privileged and quite blessed in my career, I’ve been able to tell the type of stories that I want to tell without thinking about what the industry needs. I’ve not had to compromise my interest as a storyteller so far in my career. And maybe in a way, that helps the world to view Nollywood as much more diverse than originally thought. Maybe that also helps younger filmmakers coming up to see if they can have careers outside what everyone else is doing.  There’s nothing wrong with doing mainstream films, but not everybody enjoys doing what everybody else is doing.

On international reception, I would say I’m trying to do my best work every time, whether I’m doing it for NTA or global festivals. I just try to tell the stories that might excite me without really considering what it will mean internationally. I believe great stories travel. And because great stories are universal, you can’t hide them behind language or geographical concerns. If a story is great, it’s most likely going to travel. And I give myself the best chance of traveling by going to festivals. 

Reflecting on over a decade in film, what advice would you offer to emerging Nigerian filmmakers trying to balance artistic vision with the realities of getting their work seen internationally?

I would say they’ve got to be very aggressive. Aggressive about, first of all, finding how much of an artist they are and what is the amount of compromise they personally can take? And then once you find those two things, get aggressive about executing. Find out what you enjoy, find out who you are, and get aggressive about doing it. Get relentless about it. Don’t even stop for any minute. If you’re stopping, you’re stopping to evaluate yourself, to improve, to learn, aggressively learn everything you can learn, and then go into it and keep trying.