In a groundbreaking moment at this year’s African Film Festival, British-Nigerian rapper Skepta took home the prestigious Audience Choice Award for his debut film Tribal Mark. The award, voted on by festival attendees, is a testament to the rapper’s creative talents and the impact his film had on viewers.
![Skepta at the premiere of his short film ‘Tribal Mark’ [Instagram/@afriff]](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf8,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg'%20width%3D'790'%20height%3D'744'%20data-ring-placeholder%3D'1'%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E "Skepta at the premiere of his short film ‘Tribal Mark’ [Instagram/@afriff]")
For the British rapper, music was just the beginning of his creative pursuits. Co-directed with Dwight Okechukwu, his partner in production company 1Plus1, Skepta hoped that Tribal Mark would address important social issues surrounding immigrants; mental health and racial prejudice.
“Being the child of immigrants, when I come across other children of immigrants from around the world, I relate to them a lot. And I see how they struggle to communicate certain things, or how the trauma’s eating away at them, you know?” So I just feel like this film is a nice bit of therapy for people who think or feel like me, Skepta told Variety Magazine in May 2024
Written by Andrew Prince Boateng, Sotonye Ogan, and Dwight Okechukwu, the film follows younger Mark played by Jude Carmichael, who struggles with settling into a new life in London after migrating from his home country, Nigeria.
Made up of a 90% minority ethnic cast, the film features Kola Banjo, Jude Carmichael, Camille Cole, Don Donald, Ciaran Duce, Divine Echeazu-Paul, Joseph Forman, Owen Hute, Dain King-Echeazu, Dasia King-Echeazu, Joshua Ojehonmon, Domas Okechukwu, Mark Oliver, Amelia Parillon, Afeni Prevost, Aayan Ibikunle Shoderu, Skeptt, Gabriel Kwasi Tedeku, Luis Timms, Tegasean Ubiebi, Ay Urunning.
Tagged “an immigrant story told with care,” Tribal Mark was seen by the Nigerian audience at AFRIFF on November 8, 2024.
