Ahead of Nigeria's forthcoming pivotal elections originally scheduled for 28th March 2015, the timely and powerful critically acclaimed feature-length documentary film The Supreme Price, which traces the evolution of the Pro-Democracy Movement in Nigeria and efforts to increase the participation of women in leadership roles, is set to feature in a series of prestigious screenings across Europe.
The film will feature in the United Nation's CINÉ ONU programme across Europe (UK, Austria, Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg); will play in the Movies That Matter Film Festival at The Hague, Netherlands in March in the Matter Of Act Competition sponsored by Amnesty International and summer screenings will also take place at the new Bertha DocHouse screen at London's Curzon Bloomsbury with dates soon to be announced.
Ciné-ONU is one of the United Nations' most successful outreach initiatives in Europe. It involves screenings of highly acclaimed, award-winning films and documentaries relevant to a specific UN issue, followed by a Q&A with reputed speakers.
Directed and produced by award-winning filmmaker Joanna Lipper (Growing Up Fast, Little Fugitive, Inside Out: Portraits Of Children) and winner of the Gucci Tribeca Spotlighting Women Documentary Award and Best Documentary at Africa International Film Festival 2014 (AFRIFF), The Supreme Price has been officially selected for over 12 international film festivals on five continents including Human Rights Watch Film Festival 2014 and AFI Docs 2014.
In 1993 Nigeria elected M.K.O. Abiola as president in a historic vote that promised to end years of military dictatorship. Shortly after the election, Abiola was imprisoned as another military regime seized power, and his wife, Kudirat, took over the leadership of the pro-democracy movement, organizing strikes and marches and winning international attention for the Nigerian struggle. Because of this work, she too became a target and was assassinated in 1996. Director Joanna Lipper elegantly dovetails past and present as she tells this story through the eyes of Hafsat Abiola, who was about to graduate from Harvard when her mother was murdered. Her father died in prison two years later under mysterious circumstances. Determined not to let her parents' democratic ideals die with them, Hafsat returns to Nigeria after years in exile and is at the forefront of a progressive movement to empower women and dismantle the patriarchal structure of Nigerian society.
The Supreme Price provides an unprecedented look inside of Africa's most populous nation, exposing the tumultuous, violent history of a deeply entrenched corrupt culture of governance where a tiny circle of political elites monopolize billions of dollars worth of oil revenue while the masses remain impoverished.
Filmmaker Joanna Lipper said, "I am honoured that the UN, Movies That Matter and Bertha Dochouse will be bringing my film to audiences throughout Europe. The volatile situation in Nigeria has made international headlines since the kidnapping of over 250 schoolgirls by Boko Haram in 2014. This film offers a moving story of a mother and daughter against the backdrop of a landmark Presidential election and its tumultuous aftermath along with historical context for the complex current political climate in Nigeria and its impact on the rights of women and girls.”