{"id":624631,"date":"2026-09-14T18:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T18:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/624631\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T18:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T18:58:09","slug":"mo-abudu-on-tiff-premiere-the-secret-lives-of-baba-segis-wives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/624631\/","title":{"rendered":"Mo Abudu on TIFF Premiere ‘The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tNigerian super-producer Mo Abudu<\/a> returns to the red carpet at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival this week, where \u201cThe Secret Lives of Baba Segi\u2019s Wives,\u201d premiering in the TIFF<\/a> Centrepiece strand, marks the fifth official selection in Toronto for her EbonyLife<\/a> Films production banner.<\/p>\n

\n\tBased on Lola Shoneyin\u2019s 2010 debut novel, which was later adapted for the stage, the film is set within a seemingly harmonious polygamous household anchored by Baba Segi, a wealthy patriarch with three wives, seven children and a carefully maintained family order.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat order is overturned with the arrival of his youngest wife, Bolanle, unsettling the fragile balance within the household and setting into a motion of series of revelations that expose long-buried secrets, hidden betrayals and truths capable of destroying the family forever.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDirected by Daniel Oriahi \u2014 last seen at the Tribeca Film Festival with the 2024 thriller \u201cThe Weekend\u201d \u2014 the film stars Odunlade Adekola, Iyabo Ojo, Mercy Aigbe, Bimbo Ademoye and Omowunmi Dada, with a supporting cast that includes Nkechi Blessing, Bimbo Manuel, Bisola Aiyeola, Olarotimi Fakunle, Constance Olatunde and Maleek Sanni. It\u2019s\u00a0produced by EbonyLife Films, the film strand of Abudu\u2019s EbonyLife Group, in partnership with Genesis Media Group, Nile Media Entertainment Group, Silverbird Group and Flytime Entertainment.<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking to\u00a0Variety\u00a0from Lagos, where the Nigerian mogul was preparing to fly to Paris to speak at the Lumi\u00e8re Summit, Abudu discussed the motivation behind the big-screen adaptation of\u00a0Shoneyin\u2019s debut novel, describing it as \u201ca study of the consequences of the decisions we take as women.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c[The film] really delves into the lives of the women,\u201d she said. \u201cYou try to understand why they made the decisions they made.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile admitting that the premise might not\u00a0sit too comfortably with Western audiences, she counseled tolerance and urged viewers to keep an open mind. \u201cIt\u2019s a very relatable cultural story for us as Yoruba people. Polygamy is real in this society, and I think the characters are extremely relatable,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was important for us to be authentic in telling the story in the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNollywood veteran Oriahi is directing his fifth feature, following the genre-bending thriller \u201cThe Weekend,\u201d which premiered in Tribeca\u2019s Midnight strand in 2024. He returns to Toronto 10 years after debuting \u201cTaxi Driver: Oko Ashewo,\u201d an action comedy produced by EbonyLife Films.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBaba Segi\u2019s Wives\u201d marks his latest collaboration with the production shingle, which includes directing episodes of the company\u2019s hit Netflix series \u201cBlood Sisters\u201d and the 13-episode drama \u201cHallelujah.\u201d \u201cI\u2019ve always admired his work,\u201d said Abudu, noting that she also tapped the director to teach at her EbonyLife Creative Academy.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter premiering in Toronto, where Abudu will also join production and distribution veteran Moses Babatope, of the Nile Media Entertainment Group, for a session on the global success of the Nigerian film industry at the inaugural TIFF market, \u201cBaba Segi\u2019s Wives\u201d will continue on to the BFI London Film Festival, where it plays in the Journey strand.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom there, the film will open in cinemas across Nigeria in December, marking the first EbonyLife theatrical release since 2019, with the company spending much of the intervening period producing films and TV series for Netflix, which inked a multi-title deal with Abudu\u2019s outfit in 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey kept us really busy,\u201d the producer said, pointing to a slate of 10 feature films and series released on the streamer between 2019 and 2026. \u201cWe have had a very strong and productive relationship with Netflix over more than a decade,\u201d dating back to EbonyLife\u2019s first film, \u201cFifty,\u201d which was licensed to the platform in 2015. The company\u2019s most recent production, \u201cBlood Sisters 2,\u201d dropped on the streamer in June and has remained on the top 10 in Nigeria ever since.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWith \u201cBaba Segi\u2019s Wives,\u201d however, Abudu said the time was right to return to the big screen. \u201cWhen I look at the skill of the cast, when I look at the IP, and how well it\u2019s known and loved and respected around the world, we felt that it definitely deserves that recognition,\u201d she said. \u201cHaving been out of cinemas since 2019, we wanted to come back into cinemas with something as powerful as this story.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nigerian super-producer Mo Abudu returns to the red carpet at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival this week, where…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[265263,93,61,60,265264,270,1745,1998],"class_list":["post-624631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-ebonylife","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mo-abudu","tag-movies","tag-tiff","tag-toronto-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}