An exclusive screening tagged ‘An Evening With the Milkmaid’ will hold in Lagos at Terra Kulture on Sunday, January 10, 2021 at 5.00pm, with the Honourable Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, as the special guest of honour, and ace comedian Bright Okpocha a.k.a. Basketmouth as event compere.
In December 2020, The Milkmaid was announced by the 12-member Nigeria Official Selection Committee (NOSC) as Nigeria’s representative to the 93rd Oscars in the category of Best International Feature Film, following a statutory vetting and subsequent voting of entries received from Nigerian filmmakers at home and abroad.
Written, produced and directed by Desmond Ovbiagele, The Milkmaid is a Hausa language-based thriller spotlighting insurgency and extremism, especially as they affect women and children in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Technically crafted to the highest international cinematic standards, the film showcases the natural beauty of Nigeria’s topography such as the Mambilla Plateau in Taraba state, while highlighting the richness of the subregion’s colourful Hausa and Fulani cultures.
Starring Maryam Booth, Anthonieta Kalunta, and Gambo Usman Kona, with US-based Nigerian surgeon Dr. Oluseun Sowemimo as its Executive Producer, the film follows Aisha, a Fulani milkmaid, searching for the whereabouts of her younger sister, Zainab after a forced separation.
Dire personal circumstances force her to approach the extremists who were responsible for their predicament in the first instance, but she is determined to find her despite the compromises she must make to do so.
However, her quest to recapture her serene past proves to be unexpectedly complicated in a world whose seething conflict provides several paths to becoming a victim with typically irreversible consequences.
The Milkmaid received efiveight nominations at the 16th edition of the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) in December 2020, winning awards for Best Film, Best Supporting Actress, Best Nigerian Film, Best Film in an African Language, and Achievement in Make-up.