The Woman King, starring Viola Davis, has been one of the most talked about film projects this 2022. As global citizens were asked to draw artworks in certain ways to depict the theme of the movie.
The Woman King portrays the Agojie, a brave all-women warrior unit, who protected they people, the Kingdom of Dahomey from the 17th century to the 19th century. Viola Davis, who played Nanisca the general was responsible for training young women to fight their enemies in their generation.
After visiting Benin in West Africa in 2015, Bello conceived the woman king idea and she got Cathy Schulman to develop it into a feature film. Together, they pitched it to many production studios, but they rejected it because of the budget. In 2017, TriStar Pictures decided to take it up and production began in South Africa in November 2021 but was temporarily halted due to the rise of Covid-19. It resumed early in 2022.
The Woman King Premiered in Toronto on September 9th and was officially released in the United States on September 16th. When Viola Davis was asked about the movie, this was what she had to say:
“We’re at the center of the narrative. You know, Black women, dark-skinned black women, crinkly haired, Black women. You know, there is no white savior. We’re no one’s best friend. We have our autonomy, our agency in this. And it’s a hell of a story that is—it’s not just an action movie.
It’s a historical drama and it allows us to humanize women who have typically not been humanized. It is very much the actors in the movie have experienced some of the same thing that the characters have of feeling unwanted, feeling not desired, feeling not adored, sort of the throwaways, but yet finding that strength within themselves to be a warrior. It is both feminine, strong, all of those things. It is, it literally is for me, the movie that’s defined my career.
We don’t have enough hours, enough days to describe how hard it is to get films made in Hollywood with Black people in it, but especially Black women. There are no words to quantify it. And I wish that there were microphones in the room. I wish there were cameras in the room so you could see what the day-to-day fight is and you would understand that this is something to be celebrated.”
The Woman King was directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, produced by Viola Davis and other co-producers, and it featured many black and many female stars.
