Nodash says it took only 6 days to shoot The Delivery Boy

The Delivery Boy is one of the most remarkable Nollywood films in the recent past, but it only took six days to shoot.

Director of The Delivery Boy, Adekunle 'Nodash' Adejuyigbe, says it only took him six days to wrap up filming of the 2019 thriller.

The Delivery Boy follows the story of Amir (Jammal Ibrahim), a young man on a suicide mission, a story which takes place in one night.

While fielding questions from the audience after a special screening of the film at the Alliance Française, Mike Adenuga Centre in Lagos on Sunday, February 9, 2020, Nodash said he had a major advantage that made it easy for him to wrap up filming as soon as possible.

He said, "I don't want filmmakers to leave this place thinking they can make films in six days.

"We had an advantage, and the advantage was that I was the writer, the director and the cinematographer.

"So, even while writing, I knew exactly what I was gonna shoot.

"And then there was the advantage of having a team. These are really solid guys all on the project, so it made things a lot more efficient.

"So we shot in about six days, meaning six nights actually because most of the film happened at night."

Adekunle Adejuyigbe, aka Nodash [Pitson Photography]

Even though filming didn't take too long, Nodash revealed that post-production took about "3 to 4 months" because of money issues on the self-funded passion project.

When questioned about how tough it was to execute a project that tackled grave issues such as religious indoctrination, terrorism, sexual abuse, and paedophilia, Nodash said he had to strike a balance, especially in the dialogue.

He said the disturbing violence in the film was necessary to communicate to the audience his character's life of anguish.

"I wanted it to be disturbing. Throughout the story, I was portraying this guy who's seen so much violence as a young terrorist, but I couldn't find any point where I could show you the things he's seen to understand how he felt.

"So, right from writing the story, I knew I didn't want Amir to talk too much. He wasn't a character that said a lot but he had to communicate a lot.

"I feel not portraying the violence would have taken away from the understanding of where that guy was coming from," he said.

He strongly noted that he wasn't being sympathetic with the film's central character but trying to understand a problem society has been dealing with for ages.

"I really really think you can't solve a problem you don't understand," he said.

The Delivery Boy was released in cinemas in 2019 and won the best Nigerian Film award at 2018's African International Film Festival (AFRIFF). It has also been screened at other film festivals around the world.

THE DELIVERY BOY- TRAILER 1