Ifu Ennada releases short film inspired by her rape experience

chibumga izuzu

March 19, 2018 12:26 PM

"In 2016, I was raped by someone in the entertainment industry. Before then, I was a Virgin." Ifu Ennada.

Written and produced by Ifu Ennada and directed by Benedict Alli (Kobo Productions), the film was inspired by Ifu's real-life rape experience.

"In 2016, I was raped by someone in the entertainment industry, before then I was a Virgin. This person also infected me with an STI," she told Pulse Nigeria.

After the rape, the actress was threatened by the rapist. She was also very scared of the victim shaming that often follows on social media with questions such as: "what was she wearing?" " why did she go to his house?"

"So in all my sadness and depression, I decided to tell the world what had happened to me using film as a medium. I was inspired to write and produce my film "Tears of A Broken Virgin."

For the short film, Ifu got a lot of help from social media. People volunteered to work on the project for free, including the director, Benny Alli Atagame.

Though some parts of "Tears of a Broken Virgin" is fiction, Ifu says a bulk of it was inspired by her story: The lead character's name is Ada, which is a short form of her name Adanne, popularly pronounced as Ennada.

With "Tears of a Broken Virgin," Ifu intends to pass a strong message to rape victims and rapists.

She also intends to expand the short film into a feature-length film, aimed at inspiring people to stand up against rape.

About "Tears of a Broken Virgin"

In "Tears of a Broken Virgin," a vengeful rape victim goes on an unconventional revenge mission, and not even the marriage proposal from the rapist can change her mind.

"Tears of a Broken Virgin" garnered eight nominations at the In-shorts Film festival and earned Ifu Ennada the best actress Award 2018.

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