Nigerian Author’s novel gets Netherlands funding

Nigerian writer and poet, Ben Okri’s book titled ‘Age of Magic’ is getting adapted for TV and has received funding from the Netherlands. The novel is the only project by an African to get funding.

According to newsmen reports,  the film adaptation of the award-winning Nigerian-born British book has received a €167,694 grant. This cash award is part of the Netherlands Film Production Incentive (NFPI) €6.9 million investment in 22 new productions.

The financial contribution is strictly for film productions that have demonstrably spent on their productions in the Netherlands, as the NFPI intends to develop film talent in the Netherlands and enhance the quality, diversity, and distribution of this high-earning TV series through its incentive.

The logline for the film adaptation reads, “Together with a film crew, a Black writer and his girlfriend arrive at an old mysterious town on the shores of a luminous lake, where they are changed by its magic. Between dream and reality, they try to re-find the Arcadian dream.”

Age of Magic will be produced by Belgian award-winning filmmaker Peter Kruger, who is said to have worked with Okri previously on a 2014 release titled N-The Madness of Reason.

Okri’s work is the only book from an African writer selected as a recipient of the fund, which comes as no surprise considering the critical acclaim his work has received over the years.

The poet and novelist stands as one of the foremost African authors in the post-modern and post-colonial traditions. He gained fame with his novel The Famished Road, which won the Booker Prize in 1991.

Pulse/S.S