ABUJA, Nigeria — A Nigerian action thriller that tells a gripping story of corruption and police brutality in Africa’s most populous country has reached record viewership numbers on Netflix charts globally. It’s a reminder of the power and potential of Nigeria’s rapidly growing film industry.

“The Black Book” has taken the streaming world by storm, spending three weeks among the platform’s top 10 English-language titles globally, peaking at No. 3 in the second week.

It garnered 5.6 million views just 48 hours after its Sept. 22 release and by its second week was featured among the top 10 titles in 69 countries, according to Netflix.

“Films are made for audiences, and the bigger the audience for a film, the better the chances of your message going out,” producer Editi Effiong told The Associated Press. “The reality for us is that we made a film, made by Nigerians, funded by Nigerian money, go global.”

Nollywood, Nigeria’s film industry, has been a global phenomenon since the 1990s when it rose to fame with such films as “Living in Bondage,” a thriller with Kunle Afolayan’s Aníkúlápó released in 2022 and peaking at No. 1 on Netflix’s global chart. It is the world’s second-largest film industry after India based on number of productions, with an average of 2,000 movies released annually.

Nollywood’s latest blockbuster, “The Black Book,” is a $1 million movie financed with the support of a team of experts and founders in Nigeria’s tech ecosystem and is Effiong’s first feature film.

It tells the story of Nigeria’s checkered past, spanning a period of 40 years from when military regimes killed and arrested dissidents at will until the present day, when police brutality and abuse of power remain rampant.

The film opens with the abduction of family members of the head of the Nigerian oil regulatory agency, aided by corrupt police officers working for top politicians.

To cover their tracks, the police kill a young man framed as the suspect in the kidnapping not knowing he was the only child of a former special operative who abandoned his weapons for the pulpit.

In his prime, the character of ex-officer-turned-pastor Paul Edima — played by Nigerian movie icon Richard Mofe-Damijo — was known as Nigeria’s “most dangerous man” with a past punctuated by assassinations and involvement in several coups across West Africa.

Portrayed as a repentant man who has turned over a new leaf after being inspired by his favorite Bible passage 1 Corinthians 5:17, Edima feels compelled to take revenge for his son’s death after failing to convince authorities his son is innocent.

The issue of delayed justice is not new in Nigeria. Many on Friday remembered the deadly protests of 2020 when young Nigerians demonstrating against police brutality were shot at and killed. Three years later, rights groups say many victims of police abuse still haven’t gotten justice.

For Edima, justice for his son comes at a cost. One by one, he hunts down the officers behind his son’s death, leading him to the army general behind the plot — coincidentally his former boss.

“It is a fictional narrative but this is what Nigeria was,” Effiong told the AP.

He believes Nigeria is not doing a good job of teaching its history in the schools and letting young people understand how the country’s past is shaping the present.

“A society must be changed positively by art, and so there was an orientation on our part to, through the film we are going to make, reflect on this issue (of police brutality),” Effiong said.

While a government-commissioned panel of inquiry investigated the protest shootings in Nigeria’s economic hub of Lagos in 2020, Effiong attended its meetings and provided live updates via his page on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. At the same time, pre-production for the movie already had begun.

“We must tell the truth in spite of the circumstances,” he said. “Justice is important for everyone: the people we like and the people we do not like — especially the people we do not like,” he said.

Some have said the movie’s plot is similar to that of the American action thriller John Wick. It is a surprising but flattering comparison that also testifies to the movie’s success, Effiong said.

The movie also has been lauded as signifying the potential of the film industry in Nigeria as well as across Africa. The continent’s streaming on-demand video (SVOD) market is expected to boast a robust 18 million subscribers, up from 8 million this year, according to a recent report from market intelligence firm Digital TV Research.

According to a Netflix spokesperson, entertainment with local stories remains the core of the platform’s main objective in sub-Saharan Africa. “Africa has great talent and world-class creatives, and we are committed to investing in African content and telling African stories of every kind,” Netflix said in a statement.

In Nigeria, the movie industry is at “the point right now where the world needs to take notice,” Effiong said.

He said that’s because “The Black Book is a film by Black people, Black actors, Black producers, Black money 100%, and it’s gone ahead to become a global blockbuster.”

Sainted

The other morning I was walking around Edgcumbe Recreation Center, taking in the fall colors, when I noticed a group of about 10 St. Paul Parks and Recreation employees creating the framework for our neighborhood ice rink.

As I reflected upon all the fun times that were had in this rink last winter, I thought about the song “We Are Santa’s Elves” from the 1960s holiday classic “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.” When I crossed paths with the workers and made reference to that song, one of the “elves” smiled and started humming it!

The grounds of this particular rec center have had a remarkable transformation in recent weeks: taming weeds, removing dead trees, fresh paint by the entrance, and the removal of weird debris that had piled up for a long time.

Thank you SPPR staff, your efforts are noticed and appreciated.

Susan Zoff, St. Paul

 

Tainted

Tainted to the guy and his family in Calvary Cemetery on Tuesday evening, Oct. 10, walking his husky dog.

Unless it is a service dog, no pets are allowed in the cemetery. That rule is clearly posted next to the entrance. A cemetery is not a space anyone to walk a dog and have it relieve itself on the ground of people’s graves. That is so disrespectful.

This is not the first time I have seen this happen.

M. Connolly, St. Paul

 

Sainted

I want to take this opportunity to give out a big thank you to the Coon Rapids Fire Department and the Allina paramedics. In the past three weeks I dislocated my hip two different times, and they were there in a heartbeat to help me and haul me off to Mercy Hospital.

You quys are all saints in my book. Shout out to all the staff at Mercy Hospital also. Thank you all again for being there for me.

Kathleen Frid, Coon Rapids

 

Sainted

We want to “Saint” the kind and generous person who delighted a couple of senior citizens last week.

We had dinner at Acapulco in Woodbury and were pleasantly surprised when our waiter informed us that someone had already picked up our tab. It certainly put smiles on our faces! Thanks, and be assured we will pay it forward.

Rosann Juenemann and John Seemann, Woodbury

 

Sainted

I am a senior who watches almost every Twins baseball game on TV. This year I also attended eight games at Target Field. My grandson Skylar is my Baseball Buddy. He went to every game with me, and my granddaughter Rayne went to a couple of the games with us.

I bought tickets for the second game of the Wild Card Series. The Twin had beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-1 in the first game. The tickets were expensive and my grandson Skylar was surprised that I bought them, but very happy.

On Oct. 4 my Baseball Buddy and I went to the game. During most of the game the crowd stood up and were cheering very loud and waving their Homer Hankies. There were 38,518 fans who attended the game. Again, they were cheering so loud that sometimes you covered your ears. The Twins won the game 2-0 and the Wild Card Series. We stayed and watched the Twins players celebrating out on the field.

A wonderful memory for Grandma DeAnne and her Baseball Buddy, Grandson Skylar.

DeAnne Cherry, Woodbury

 

Sainted

On Tuesday, Oct. 10, my two friends from Isle, Minn., came to St. Paul to take me for lunch at DeGidio’s Italian Restaurant. We had a delicious lunch, but there was a man sitting across from our booth, alone, who got up and said that there is someone across from me that’s celebrating her 87th birthday. (He must have heard us talking).

I said, “that’s me,” and he said Happy Birthday! and he left the restaurant. A few minutes later the waiter came to check on us and we talked about this person who had just wished me a happy birthday. The waiter said that he also had paid for all three dinners we had.

What a wonderful surprise and from a very thoughtful person.

So i would like to say “thank you very much.” That was the best birthday party I’ve ever had.

Norma Perna, St. Paul

 

Sainted

Sainted: The Chewy Co.

Recently my daughter had to send her Precious Pug Smash over the” Rainbow Bridge.” Because she was a customer Chewy sent a beautiful flower arrangement and condolence note. What great customer service!

Susi Murphy, St. Paul

 

The 40th anniversary of the barracks bombing of in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed 240 U.S. servicemen was commemorated Monday at Fort Snelling National Cemetery, specifically honoring four Minnesota Marines killed and a fifth Marine who is believed to also be a casualty of that attack.

Recent events in the Middle East were front of mind for some.

“The same ideology that killed all those Marines on this day 40 years ago are still killing today,” said organizer Patricia Peerson at the ceremony. “So it’s very timely, this special ceremony tonight.”

The four Minnesota Marines killed in the attack were Marine Cpl. John Olson of Sabin, Lance Cpls. Kevin Custard of Virginia, Thomas Lamb of Coon Rapids and John Tishmack of Minneapolis. The ceremony also recognized 1st Lt. John Downing of Minneapolis, who returned to the United States shortly before the bombing and died by suicide days after learning his fellow Marines had been killed.

Wreaths were placed on the graves of Lamb, Tishmack and Downing, who are buried at Fort Snelling.

Now some warn that the U.S. could be sliding toward a new conflict in the region.

The bombing

On Oct. 23, 1983, a suicide bomber hit an American military barracks at Beirut International Airport, killing 241 U.S. service members, most of them Marines — still the deadliest attack on Marines since the World War II Battle of Iwo Jima.

A near-simultaneous attack on French forces killed 58 paratroopers.

The U.S. blames the bombings on the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, a claim the Iran-backed group denies. The U.S. and French forces were in Beirut as part of a multinational force deployed amid Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon and as peacekeepers during the Lebanese civil war between Muslims and Christians allied with Israel. The force oversaw the withdrawal of Palestinian fighters from Beirut and stayed afterward to help a Western-backed government in Lebanon at the time. The bombing prompted a U.S. withdrawal from Lebanon.

Two truck bombs were detonated at separate barracks. Eighteen sailors and three soldiers also died in the attack along with nearly two dozen Lebanese civilians.

The United States is now deploying forces again in the region in connection to a war between Israel and its enemies.

The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford has been positioned in the eastern Mediterranean along with other American warships — with a second carrier on the way — in what is widely seen as a message to Iran and Hezbollah not to open new fronts as Israel fights Hamas.

Longtime tensions between the U.S. and Iran have been hiked by the two-week-old war between Israel and Hamas, in which the Palestinian militant group’s Oct. 7 surprise attack on southern Israeli towns brought devastating Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

The war risks spiraling into a wider regional conflict. The biggest worry is over the Lebanon-Israel border, where Israel and Hezbollah exchange fire on a daily basis.

In harms way

But there are other spots where the U.S. could be dragged directly into the fight. There are roughly 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq and around 900 others in eastern Syria, on missions against the Islamic State group. In both countries, Iran has militias loyal to it that already have opened fire on the Americans since the Gaza war erupted.

American forces could also come under attack if Israel launches a ground invasion of Gaza and appears about to destroy Hamas, as it has vowed to do.

Still, many analysts say an all-out regional war that would risk dragging the U.S. and Iran into direct confrontation remains unlikely. The 1983 barracks bombing was seen as a lesson in the danger for the U.S. in stepping in the middle of a conflict between Israel and one of its neighbors.

Sam Heller of The Century Foundation said that, as in 1983, “I don’t trust that the U.S. forces the Biden administration has sent to the region are enough to really intimidate and deter local actors.”

“Iran and its allies are exposed in their own way,” Heller said, but they have “very serious capabilities today that could be (used) against U.S. targets regionwide.”

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

One of the better-polling Republican presidential candidates said on Monday that withdrawing the U.S. from NATO was a “reasonable idea” and that he was “reevaluating” whether America should remain a member of the United Nations.

POLITICO asked Vivek Ramaswamy, the entrepreneur polling fourth nationally and in Iowa, about a Rolling Stone article detailing how the GOP frontrunner, former President Donald Trump, was open to taking the U.S. out of the transatlantic military alliance. He answered by supporting the notion, but didn’t commit to following through if he were elected president.

“It’s a reasonable idea that I have considered,” he said in a brief statement.

Ramaswamy didn’t detail, even after questioning, why he was amenable to a NATO withdrawal. Unsolicited, the candidate added that “I am also open to reevaluating U.S. involvement in the UN” without expounding further, even after more queries on the subject.

Still, the statement makes clear that Ramaswamy is mulling a radical shift in U.S. foreign policy, one that would see the United States withdraw from alliances and institutions it helped found after World War II. Ramaswamy’s stance means at least two of the top four Republicans vying for the nomination are skeptical that remaining in such organizations is beneficial for America’s foreign policy goals.

If the U.S. were no longer in NATO, it would lose a commitment from 30 other allies to defend it if attacked. The only time NATO’s Article 5 was invoked was after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. And leaving the United Nations would mean a loss of America’s veto power on the Security Council, possibly giving China and Russia, two of the five nations with that privilege, more influence in the world body.

Ramaswamy is resistant to further entangling the U.S. abroad and has called for a weakening of America’s commitments to Ukraine and Israel, urging lawmakers to vote “no” on President Joe Biden’s $106 billion aid package, which would boost both countries’ defenses. He told POLITICO on Saturday that the U.S. military aid for Israel’s fight against Hamas should be “contingent” on Israel’s having a detailed plan for what comes after a ground invasion of Gaza.

Ramaswamy, however, isn’t looking for a complete removal of the United States from world affairs. He has promoted military strikes on Mexican drug cartels to curb the spread of fentanyl, and has warned other countries, namely China, that if they wade deeper into the Western Hemisphere, they will “have hell to pay.”

His comments on NATO and the United States are likely to earn him more pushback from U.S. foreign policy traditionalists in both parties. Nikki Haley, the former ambassador to the U.N. and a rival for the GOP presidential nomination, has been a staunch Ramaswamy critic, calling him a foreign policy novice partly over his stances on Israel.

Ramaswamy and Haley are two of three candidates to qualify for the next GOP presidential debate in November. The other, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, will join them. Trump, who did not show up for the first debates, is unlikely to appear.