The Story ⚡
With years of experience in the medical profession, Ella Emefiele, producer of The Scar, heralds her first film, a story on female genital mutilation.
Tell Me More
The Scar is a film that centers on female genital mutilation and the possible solution for cut women. This film also features as Ella Emefiele’s first foray into filmmaking.
Directed by Robert Peters with Trinity Ugonabo as associate producer , The Scar features top Nollywood stars including Stella Damasus, Joseph Benjamin, Mercy Macjoe, Collins John Emefele, Ella Emefele and many more.
In this sit-down with Shock, the producer discusses the why and how she came about the inspiration for this film. She also touches on her passion to educate on societal issues, especially those related to her medical profession.
Can you tell us why you decided to make this film?
The Scar is a true life story; it’s a compilation of the true stories women face. Back home in Nigeria, I owned a medical centre, and in this practice, I was able to have a one-on-one conversation with maternity women where they share intimate things with me. From my conversations with multiple women, I noticed that most women who are circumcised don’t enjoy sex as much as their counterparts. I then started researching that. I also had a friend who is uncircumcised who opened up to me about never having enjoyed sex with her husband which caused serious issues in her marriage. This was where my passion for making this movie came form
How were you able to translate this script and hire a director to make the film?
When I relocated to America, I started hearing about clitoroplasty, it’s a minor surgical procedure to reconstruct the clitoris. The name of the movie was supposed to be Buried Treasure because when the clitoris is cut during circumcision, it buries itself during the healing process. We didn’t end up using the name however because Robert Peters, the director felt it was an old-school name.
When i started talking about the movie, I pitched it to Mr Patrick the comedian, he’s a good friend of mine. He then took me to Robert Peters. I wanted to use this medium to create awareness about clitoroplasty, so Robert Peters listened to the story and said it was a blockbuster, he liked it. And at this time we’d not developed it into a script. His interest gave me more inspiration to begin script writing, then I reached out to Osita to write the script. Then we started casting. Altogether, we spent 8 days shooting in Dallas and 2 days shooting in Atlanta.
What do you think the society can do to de-stigmatize this issue?
The complications of FGM is a lot, one of which is infection, since its done in an unclean way. Some people die of infection, bleeding, and the likes. It also causes depression for some. It is a huge trauma for anyone to go through. International bodies and the government should be involved in this issue of FGM because we’ve been clamoring about stopping FGM but up until today it still happens in Nigeria. If the government could put laws in place that criminalizes female genital mutilation, then it will go a long way.
How do you think you can get people to know about the clitoroplasty process?
I spoke with a doctor here who is a specialist in this procedure. I’m trying to liaise with her and get a sponsor to fly her down to Nigeria, but we also need to have people on ground who are interested in undergoing this procedure. When we have such people, I can then come in with the doctor, after getting an appropriate sponsor, who will carry out the surgery.
As a movie producer, will you gear your movies towards these types of social issues?
I’m not producing for the profession, I’m an experience nurse who just wants to use this platform to pass cogent messages. If I’m going to produce a movie again, it will be around passing messages on health; maybe cervical cancer. I’m more interested in teaching people about health issues and solutions.
Thank you for sitting down with us for this interview.
Thank You Shock.
