Allison Precious Emmanuel: ‘The Boy Who Gave’ a Debut Worth Talking About

The Boy Who Gave, Allison Precious Emmanuel's debut feature, is many things: a showcase of technical prowess, an emotional journey through sacrifice, and most notably, a declaration of arrival from a filmmaker who refuses to compromise his vision, even if it means wearing every hat imaginable.

Writer. Director. Producer. Lead actor. Production designer.

Allison didn't MERELY make a film; he lived inside it, breathed with it, and emerged on the other side with a project that is undeniably, unapologetically his.

The Boy Who Gave screened at the 14th edition of the African International Film Festival and was nominated in three categories ( Best Actor, Best Director and Best Feature Film).

The Writer Who Knew Every Word

"I knew I could do it," Allison says simply, when we asked why he took on virtually every creative role. That is the confidence of someone who spent several months with a story, writing and rewriting through seven or eight drafts until he stopped counting.

The journey to writing The Boy Who Gave began with a realisation: the writer he usually collaborated with was approaching the script quite differently.

When his collaborator's first ten pages came back feeling like a different film entirely, Allison felt "a nudge in my heart that I felt like I needed to write this for myself." What followed was a month of intensive writing, then months more of refinement. 

"When you spend so much time with a script like that, you know your story, you know your film," he reflects. "You've seen every scene, you've seen what the characters are wearing, you've seen what the houses that they live in look like, you've seen everything."

This intimate knowledge would become both a gift and a burden.

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The Director Who Couldn't Let Go

With the script complete, Allison faced a dilemma: who could direct a story he knew this intimately? His answer: no one.

"I knew that no one could direct this film as much as I could," he states matter-of-factly. "I don't care whether you are the biggest director in Hollywood; you can't direct The Boy Who Gave as much as I wanted it to be directed."

The one role he considered delegating was the lead. He searched for actors with the range to pull off Idah (Broda), the eldest brother, sacrificing everything for his siblings. But every time he found a promising candidate, something nagged at him: "I can do a better job in the character than this person."

The fear was real. "I've never acted and directed," he admits. "Directing and playing the lead is so difficult... especially for an emotional film." But after coaching sessions with Nse Ikpe-Etim and a successful first day of shooting, Allison knew: "Okay, I can really do this thing."

The Vision That Extended Everywhere

What the credits don't show is Allison's involvement in literally every creative decision. Production design? "There's no writer-director who will not be able to do their production design."

He also worked closely with the costume, sound and editing departments to achieve the right feel and texture of his film.

Despite being heavily involved and risking monotony, Allison defends his approach: "The script that I was writing was the film that I ended up shooting. And to me, that is a win."

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The Story Behind the Story

The Boy Who Gave emerged from Allison's observations of firstborn children and the crushing expectations placed on them. "I just never really liked how much burden we put on firstborns," he says. "I'm not a firstborn, I'm the last child... But like, I see how my people treat their firstborns."

But what makes the film's ending so unconventional and so devastating is Emmanuel's refusal to offer false hope.

"Life is not going to be better for everybody," he states plainly. "The people who would actually accomplish their dreams and actually be successful are fewer than the people who would not."

This philosophy manifests in an ending that feels like "walking inside a tunnel and then the further you walk in the darker it becomes."

Allison sees this as honouring a reality often ignored: "The cemetery, the burial grounds are full of people who did not achieve their dreams, who suffered from the day they were born to the day they died. And we never honour their reality."

The Lessons Learned

Allison acknowledges this approach isn't sustainable. "Producing is so much work. You can literally die from being a producer," he laughs.

His plan? Build a system of collaborators who understand his vision so thoroughly that he can eventually focus solely on directing.

"It's about building your systems of people that understand your vision," he explains. "My next project, once I communicate the vision to them, they already know this is how Allison works."

The first film, he argues, demanded this level of control: "It's the thing that comes with your first feature and getting it right. And sometimes, including so many people would mean explaining your vision to so many people."

The Director Who Studies Projects, Not People

Ask Allison about his filmmaking influences, and you'll get an unexpected answer: "I don't know if I look up to any filmmaker home or abroad... I don't know anybody's catalogue."

Instead, he takes lessons from projects. "If I watch a good movie, I note down what I like about the projects and what I don't like about the projects, and I keep it moving."

It's a refreshingly honest admission in an industry where dropping director names is currency. Emmanuel prefers specific observations: he'll watch Kunle Afolayan for visual quality or appreciate Kemi Adetiba's storytelling.

What's Next: The Disruptor's Promise

Looking ahead, Allison is both excited and apprehensive. He wants to tell "very odd, detail stories" but wonders: "I don't know how Nigerians are going to feel about the kinds of stories I'm going to tell."

His concern is about the subject matter. "When I'm telling stories about gay men and young women, and I'm telling stories about sexuality, and I'm telling stories about all these very minority groups of people that Nigerians don't like... will they like the work?"

But his resolve is clear: "I will disrupt. Like, I will disrupt this ecosystem."

Promise and Potential

Allison Precious Emmanuel has announced himself as a filmmaker who knows what he wants and possesses the technical skill to achieve it.

Whether his storytelling will match his visual prowess, whether he'll learn to trust collaborators as much as he trusts himself, and whether Nigerian audiences will embrace his promised disruption, these questions await future films.

For now, The Boy Who Gave stands as both an achievement and a learning experience, a film that is exactly what its creator envisioned, for better and worse. “The boy” gave everything. 

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