By Chinasa Afigbo

In the fight against rape that has eaten into the fabric of our society, actor, model and filmmaker, Sunny Okonkwo, a versatile artist in the Nigerian entertainment industry, is set to reveal the causes and effects of rape with the release of his upcoming movie titled ‘Masked’, in September 2019.

The movie features both veteran and new actors in the movie industry such as Bimbo Akintola, Maureen Ihua, Christian Paul, Bolaji Ogumola, Chinoso Young and others.

‘Masked’ depicts how young ladies are molested at very young ages and the repercussions involved as they grow. Rape victims don’t always get to talk about their experiences in Nigeria, even in the faces of pedophiles living around us and molesting children.

Sunny Okonkwo is an economist by profession and a consultant who has developed passion for film making, acting, and modeling. He is a fashion brand manager for Ade Barkari, Adebayo Jones, Agatha Moreno, and some other fashion brands too.

Speaking of his journey into becoming a filmmaker, Sunny Okonkwo narrates the process: “I started as an actor when I was twenty-one.  Then, because of school and some other challenges, I diverted into the cooperate world, then went back into filmmaking fulltime. Now I’m a full-time producer and also consult for companies that want to distribute and license their movies.

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“I have done series of movies as an actor, a co-producer, and an associate. But recently, I started producing my own movie independently and I have produced about three of them. Presently I just finished a movie titled ‘Masked’.

“The movie, ‘Masked’ talks about a young girl who abandoned her kids for fame. In the process of doing that, those children got into wrong hands in the family who molested them at their young ages. This eventually led to a negative effect on the kids, who later grew up to hate their mother and become victims of post-trauma,” he said, “This movie demonstrates the societal issues that people shy away from.”

Sunny Okonkwo assures his audience that ‘Masked’ will be mind-blowing because of its compelling characters and huge suspense involved.

His passion for storytelling through visuals is beyond pleasure. He loves to educate his audience through his works. “I like to open people’s minds to societal shenanigans and make them learn from it. As an actor, I started off by observing how the Nigerian movie industry is and I decided to do something different. I don’t want to do basic and be the regular producer we all know; I want to tell stories on subjects we don’t talk about in this country. From the movies I make, you’ll observe that I try to work on stories that will promote social changes, stories that people will watch, learn and resonate with easily,” he said.

He also talked about his other movies that would be released after ‘Masked’ in September. “Another movie is coming up titled ‘The shift’,” he highlighted, “it will be dwelling more on depression and suicide among youths and how social media has influenced youths not to recognize their self-worth.

“This script is ready and we are in the process of screen-playing it. People need to know what actually causes depression among millennials, and how people live false lives to oppress and intermediate others on social media.

The second project will be on sickle cell anemia to show how people living with sickle cell anemia have survived with the help of recent technology,” he said.

Sunny Okonkwo states that the driving force behind production of these movies is the time he has taken to observe movies in the Nollywood industry and how they dwell on comedy, romance and love stories and play up things that are not really happening within us.

“We’ve done enough of all these. I think it’s time we do movies that buttress on matters eating up society, things people find very difficult to talk about. I want to be that type of producer that will tell real-life stories, stories that would push people to think and be alive to their environment,” he remarked.