From Solitary to Spotlight: The Man Died Ignites New York with Soyinka’s Fire

Segun Atanda/

On Tuesday, May 13, the hallowed halls of Lincoln Center will shimmer with the raw power of memory, resistance, and artistry as The Man Died—a soul-searing adaptation of Wole Soyinka’s prison memoir—lights up the 32nd New York African Film Festival.

What began as scribbles in the shadows of solitary confinement will now unfold in full cinematic glory before a global audience. Directed by the evocative storyteller and NYU professor Awam Amkpa, this 105-minute feature is not just a film—it’s a reckoning. A resurrection of truth.

The Man Died plunges us into the claustrophobic stillness of Soyinka’s cell, where silence screams, sanity teeters, and ink becomes the last weapon of a man determined not to vanish.

Anchored by Wale Ojo’s piercing performance as Soyinka, the film’s cast reads like a who’s who of Nigerian screen royalty—Sam Dede, Norbert Young, Francis Onwochei, and international talents like Christiana Oshunniyi and Abraham Awam-Amkpa.

Produced by veteran filmmaker Femi Odugbemi, under the banner of Zuri24 Media, the film has journeyed from the shores of Lagos to the streets of London, the lecture halls of Norwich and Accra, and now, the cultural heart of Manhattan. Since its premiere marking Soyinka’s 90th birthday, it has collected laurels like poems—Best Scriptwriting at AFRIFF, Audience Choice at ENIFF, and a nod from Luxor for tackling Africa’s most urgent truths.

At Lincoln Center, the film will be more than a screening. It will be a séance. A summoning of Soyinka’s spirit in a city that thrives on stories that dare to challenge, to provoke, to endure.

But the magic doesn’t end with the end credits.

Amkpa, the director-scholar, will lead a masterclass titled The Art of Adaptation, using The Man Died as his canvas to paint the alchemy of turning tortured text into transformative cinema. Joining him in this dialogue is Senegalese filmmaker Angèle Diabang, whose So Long a Letter also leaps from literature to lens, blending feminism, tradition, and rebellion.

Festival founder Mahen Bonetti calls this edition Fluid Horizons: A Hopeful Lens of a Shifting World, and The Man Died—born of confinement, delivered with courage—is its beating heart.

Already on the radar of Harvard, Oxford, and top streaming platforms, the film moves not just across geographies, but through generations, speaking to the youth, the thinkers, the restless, and the dreamers.

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