Ritual by Justyna Obasi challenges inherited definitions of manhood, set against the weight of generational expectation. In the underbelly of Lagos, it follows a young protagonist through a day that becomes a quiet journey of inner transformation. Living in the skeleton of an unfinished building, he owns only one garment: a sacred piece. Soaked, wrung, dried, the cloth breathes through ritual, embodying reverence for craft and the belief that clothing can hold spirit. The film reflects on the power of spiritual practice and the possibility of redefining masculinity through the smallest shifts in daily ritual. The unfinished structure becomes metaphor: a masculine form unbuilt, open, tender. A symbol of becoming, concrete dreams suspended in mid-construction, like the protagonist himself. Through ritual, his existence turns into a living prayer, revealing the divine embedded in survival and the everyday. Set within the framework of generational expectations, the film traces a young man’s journey toward understanding the version of manhood handed to him and the version he must choose for himself.
Made in Lagos, Ritual is the coming together of a collective of rising Lagos-based creatives, with stylist Jahn Affah featuring the bespoke Nigerian fashion label Oshobor. Directed by Justyna Obasi and produced by Bush Baby Film and Anorak Film, every element of production was born of the city itself. Ritual unfolds with the quiet intensity of a story that already existed long before the first frame was shot. Justyna’s work does not rush toward spectacle. Instead, it lingers in atmosphere, in the space between gesture and meaning, in the subtle emotional currents that shape identity long before anyone dares to name them.
On screen and across her visual universe, Ritual feels like both a revelation and a return. Justyna Obasi approaches filmmaking as a reflective act. She works with image the way a poet works with memory, layering scenes with cultural tension, personal mythology, and the kind of emotional honesty that refuses to simplify the complexities of becoming. Her project Ritual moves through this sensibility with deliberate clarity.
What makes Justyna Obasi’s direction compelling is her sensitivity to nuance. Masculinity in Ritual is not portrayed through dominance or bravado but through tenderness, uncertainty, and the courage to question. The film recognizes vulnerability not as weakness but as the doorway to authenticity. In doing so, it offers a cinematic language that feels both contemporary and timeless. Ritual by Justyna Obasi is more than a film. It is a meditation on inheritance, a portrait of a young man standing at the threshold of his own becoming, and an exploration of the quiet revolutions that happen inside the self. Obasi’s work reminds us that transformation often begins in stillness, shaped not by external noise but by the intimate rituals through which we rewrite the stories we have been given.
Nothing in the world of Ritual is loud, yet everything resonates. The landscape becomes a character. Light settles with intention. Movement feels contemplative, as though each gesture carries an unspoken inheritance. Obasi’s direction reveals masculinity not as an absolute but as a shifting terrain shaped by lineage, silence, vulnerability, and resistance. The transformation at the center of the film is not immediate. It is slow and internal, a quiet ritual of self definition. What stands out in Ritual is the balance between emotional weight and visual restraint.
The images are honest but never harsh. There is softness in the way characters navigate the frame, a kind of spiritual stillness that heightens the tension beneath the surface. Obasi uses restraint as a narrative tool, allowing viewers to feel the pressure of expectation without reducing it to a single moment. The film becomes an intimate meditation on the responsibility of breaking cycles, both personal and cultural. Ritual also reflects Obasi’s interest in how identity is formed at the intersection of the private and the inherited. Her lens captures the gravity of fatherhood, the unspoken influence of tradition, and the quiet courage required to choose a different path. In this sense, Ritual becomes both testimony and confession. It articulates the familiar conflict between who one is told to be and who one actually becomes when given the room to breathe. The visual language intensifies these themes. Bodies exist in stillness. Objects hold symbolic charge. Natural elements echo internal states. Ritual feels grounded in lived experience rather than cinematic artifice. The viewer is not asked to watch from a distance but to inhabit the emotional interior of the story. The work contains a kind of spiritual density, a recognition that change often happens in silence before it appears in action.
Written and Directed by Justyna Obasi
DOP: Konstantin Mazov
Stylist: Jahn Affah
Voice narration: Arinzechukwu Patrick
Production: Bushbabyfilms
Editorial cut and run: Emma Backman, Grading: Romola Davies, SLGH Berlin, Music: Jacob Plasse
Creative Director: Johanna Cranitch, Barking Owl, Sound Design: Gus Koven, Barking Owl
Executive Producer KC Dossett, Barking Owl
Prod assist: The Process Africa, Sound: Aina Akinwande
Hair & Make-up: 25thTheFairy, Casting: Shola Samaiye, DIT: Phyllo Nicholas
AC: Kingsley, Ist AC: Lanre Assitant Director: Shigo, Gaffer: Moses Odediran, Production Designer Ekerin Ayomide
BTS Photography: Random Photo Journal