After back-to-back Box Office success with Mirror Boy and Last Flight To Abuja, celebrated producer and director, Obi Emelonye, is back with OnyeOzi (The Messenger), a subtitled Igbo language movie featuring top comedian, Okey Bakassi. OnyeOzi tells the story of Metumaribe (Okey Bakassi) who arrived London with high expectations and a two-year plan to return to Nigeria a rich man. However, life in London with his new wife, Mkpurunma (Ngozi Igwebike) is not going according to plan. On a fateful night, TJ, an old English man (Stephen Moriaty) is chased by some masked men, into a party organized to welcome Metu to London, and shot before everybody. As party goers run away, Metu attempts to help the man. The dying man squeezes an envelope and a bunch of key into Metu’s hand and whispers a message as he takes his last breath. From that point on, Metu becomes involved. And no matter how much he runs from it or how long it takes; he knows he must deliver the message as he promised. Now, his two-year plan has become a psychological adventure that will change his life and the lives of those around him forever.
The movie, produced and directed by Obi Emelonye, has an engaging storyline, with the capacity to keep viewers glued to the big screen for as long as the movie lasts. The cast delivered their lines with such dexterity and professionalism that would captivate and arrest attention of viewers in any way. OnyeOzi was premiered at Silverbird Galleria, Ikeja, Lagos, on Friday, November 22, 2013, which was also the day it hit the cinemas nationwide. “After the many successes of Last Flight to Abuja and The Mirror Boy, I felt the time was right for me to do what I had been holding back for many years – to make a personal but important film that makes my mother tongue “Igbo”, the star attraction. OnyeOzi (The Messenger) is my humble attempt to contribute my little quota to the preservation of the Igbo language and to take Nollywood back to its roots,” said Emelonye. One of a new generation of Nigerian film directors taking the magic of ‘Nollywood’ to the wider world, Emelonye attracted international attention with the 2011 release of his ground-breaking film, The Mirror Boy and the high octane Last Flight To Abuja in 2012. The hugely successful, award winning films have set new standards in cinemas, breaking box-office records, with many awards to show for it.