Rushlake Media Takes World Sales Rights to Nigerian Collective’s ‘Vagabond Queen’ Ahead of Toronto World Premiere (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Christopher Vourlias Cologne and Nairobi-based sales agent Rushlake Media has acquired world sales rights to “The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos,” the feature debut of the Nigerian filmmaking group the Agbajowo Collective which will have its world premiere in the Centerpiece section of the Toronto Intl.

Film Festival. Based on real-life events that took place in 2016 and 2017 during violent, forced evictions from Lagos’ Otodo Gbame fishing community, the film tells the story of Jawu, a young mother from a waterfront slum who stumbles upon a horde of corrupt blood money marked for a real-estate development that threatens her home.

Overcoming isolation and temptation, she must act as a unifying force in a community that stands to lose everything. Backed by the Durban FilmMart, the Sundance Institute and the Berlinale World Cinema Fund, the film is a collaboration between emerging filmmakers from informal settlements across Lagos working alongside established film professionals.

Dubbing itself the Agbajowo Collective, the group seeks to amplify the voices of Lagos’ millions currently living in informal settlements and in imminent threat of losing their homes.