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New film explores Nigeria's pioneering Olympics football glory
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Nigerian film director Yemi Bamiro poses for a portrait at the Mayfair Kitchen, in London on October 10, 2022. The director of a documentary exploring Nigeria's groundbreaking 1996 Olympic football win amid domestic upheaval in the waning days of military rule hopes it can counter typical “stereotypes“ about Africa.
(AFP /Isabel Infantes )
T
he director of a documentary exploring Nigeria's groundbreaking 1996 Olympic football win amid domestic upheaval in the waning days of military rule hopes it can counter typical "stereotypes" about Africa.
"Super Eagles '96", which premiered at the London Film Festival on Thursday, charts the rise of the Nigerian men's football team in the decade or so before its epic gold medal in the United States.
The victory by that flock of Super Eagles -- as the national team is known -- was the first global football tournament won by an African team and was celebrated across the continent.
But the film also chronicles the role played by the political tumult of the era, as opposition grew to three decades of military dictatorship in Africa's most populous but fractious nation.
"You couldn't tell the football story without telling what was happening at the same time, because they collide," director Yemi Bamiro, 40, told AFP on the sidelines of the festival.
In making it, the British-born filmmaker from a Nigerian family tried to tap into the pride he felt as a teenager watching the Super Eagles beat footballing giants Brazil and then Argentina to claim gold.
"I always used to feel -- I still do, to an extent -- that stories that come out of the continent are a little bit one note," Bamiro said.
