Screen International invites you to a virtual screening for the film The Milkmaid

Official submission | Nigeria

This screening is open to awards voters and industry professionals and will be available for 24 hours after the start time.

The Milkmaid (Nigeria) – Jan 22, 3pm UK time

Nigeria is having a second first go at entering the international feature category, after last year’s submission Lionheart was disqualified by the Academy due to containing too much English language dialogue.

That won’t be a problem for Desmond Ovbiagele’s title, which is fully in the Hausa language which is spoken by the largest native ethnic group in Africa, including peoples in northern Nigeria. Starring popular Nigerian actress Maryam Booth, the film is a thriller in which a Fulani milkmaid confronts religious extremists from Boko Haram in rural Sub-Saharan Africa in a quest to locate her missing sister; but efforts to recapture her disrupted past prove complicated. It is Ovbiagele’s debut feature, and was chosen from a shortlist of six by the 12-person Nigerian Oscar Selection Committee.