The Weekend follows the story of Nikiya, an orphaned woman yearning for a sense of belonging. She gives her fiancé, Luc an ultimatum to either introduce her to his estranged family or risk losing her. Reluctantly, Luc agrees, concealing the dark truth behind his family’s past to preserve their relationship.
Upon meeting his family, Nikiya is initially enamoured by their welcoming demeanour. As she settles into their seemingly perfect life, cracks begin to surface, revealing sinister family secrets.
With the film, Oriahi puts a new twist on the familiar meeting-the-in-laws story with a skilful combination of genre-bending horror.
Out of an impressive 13,016 submissions, The Weekend was selected as one of the final offerings at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival in New York. It was the only Nollywood film to be screened at the international festival this year. The annual festival attracts many individuals in the film community to the Tribeca district of New York City for a celebration of cinema.
The movie is produced by Trino Motion Pictures. The cast include Uzoamaka Aniunoh, Bucci Franklin, Meg Otanwa, James Gardiner, Gloria Anozie, and Keppy Ekpeyong Bassey.
In an interview with The New York Times, Oriahi spoke about making the movie, which he said is a big-budget film by Nollywood standards.
Daniel Oriahi’s ‘The Weekend’
Pulse Nigeria
“I haven’t had the opportunity to make necessarily big-budget films, and in the Nigerian landscape, The Weekend is seen as a high-budget film. Such films are rare to come by. But I pride myself as a filmmaker who wants to make films that are seen, so I’ve made a lot of stuff for local streamers. Over time, I have discovered I am drawn to narratives that have dysfunctional family dynamics. I come from a country where it’s very dysfunctional, to be honest,” he said.
