THE DELIVERANCE OF COMFORT (2010)

"The Deliverance of Comfort" is a short satirical fable about a 'child witch' called Comfort. The film begins with the voice of a "priest" explaining how one identifies a child witch and what to do when one is found. The script in this part of the film is derived from a startling recent UNESCO report which contained interviews from several "priests" that exorcised so-called child witches. In the 2nd half of the film we see the consequences of the apparent 'exorcism'. The Deliverance of Comfort is a critical and densely-layered response to the belief in child witches in some parts of rural Nigeria and Africa. The film questions the very nature of belief and comments on the complex relationship between pre-Christian pagan belief and modern day Nigerian Christianity. The relationship between Exu, The Devil, the human spirit and God. Inspired by the low-fi special effects employed in Nigerian Nollywood films especially when the supernatural is being evoked, "The Deliverance of Comfort" uses these same techniques but challenges the conservative and unchanging ideas about the supernatural drawing uncomfortable conclusions. In essence using Nollywood to subvert Nollywood.