By Chris Onuoha

The long awaited epic Nigerian centenary film, Invasion 1897 by a prolific film writer, director, producer, Lencelot Oduwa Imasuen has finally berthed in Lagos. Invasion 1897, seen as a revival of our cultural heritage had been premiered in Abuja and Benin with a wide applaud and acceptance and made its final premiere at the Civic Center in Victoria Island, Lagos on Tuesday, September 30, 2014.

It’s argued that no other film has ever generated so much local and international interests as the historical film because of its central theme, 1897 British Punitive Expedition to the Benin Kingdom and the exile of Oba Ovonramwen Nogbaisi.

This epic film with an episode in African history already has become a reference material for many historians, scholars and students of African Studies; African Arts and culture and colonial history. Arinze, Mike Omoregbee and others while from the Britons; Charles Chucky Venn, Rudolph Walker, Annika Alofti, Hannah Raehse-Felstead amongst others.

According to Lancelot, “I am really elated with the kind of appraisal and reaction we received so far from the areas it premiered. It’s a milestone in the movie industry and we are using this project to prove to the world that Nigeria films have come to occupy a strategic position in world recognition.”

The reality of this particular movie is the vivid connection it has with the people. From the beginning of the film, there was a reaction and tension in people’s faces seeing the white men cart away the artefacts made by the indigenous craftsmen who sweated in the heat of the oven furnace painstakingly working on the bronze images that is dear to their heart.”