Adanne follows the stories of three generations of Igbo women battling with love, duty, and family tensions as Adanne, a teenage girl caught between youthful creativity and oppressive expectations, fights to claim her own identity.
By Vivian Nneka Nwajiaku
Baby Farm star Onyinye Odokoro is among the leading cast in Adanne, the feature debut from promising independent production company, Melon House Production.
Orobosa Ikponmwen, who was nominated for the Filmjoint Award for Voice of Impact in 2025 for her short film Bodmas (2022) and is also known for the short The Delectable Azeezah Sama (2023), is directing the film as her debut feature, from a script by Gold Gerry, also credited as producer alongside Lotanna Nwose (Boo’d Up (2022)).
Adanne follows the stories of three generations of Igbo women battling with love, duty, and family tensions as Adanne, a teenage girl caught between youthful creativity and oppressive expectations, fights to claim her own identity and reshape the legacy of her lineage, questioning whether the life laid out for her is one she must accept. As the three generations of women collide, love becomes both refuge and restraint, forcing them to confront the patterns they have inherited and whether those patterns can be broken.
Acclaimed for her performances in EbonyLife series Baby Farm (2025), Showmax original series Princess on a Hill (2024), and Dika Ofoma’s festival-favourite short film God’s Wife (2024), Odokoro plays Ijeoma, Adanne’s mother, who performs the role of the perfect wife even as her marriage quietly unravels, clinging to love within a system that asks her to disappear inside it.
Playing the eponymous Adanne is Somachi Chilaka, in her first major feature role. Also starring is Jennifer Umenwa as Akachi, the matriarch whose choices, shaped by survival, continue to echo through her daughter and granddaughter, influencing their lives in ways they do not yet understand.
The cast also includes theatre director Kelvinmary Ndukwe, who has made notable appearances in films such as Awam Amkpa’s Wole Soyinka biopic and adaptation, The Man Died (2024), and Moyosore Akinsete’s Love, Olaitan (2024)).
An English and Igbo language film, Adanne is set within the Igbo cultural context and explores the intimacy and complexity of mother-daughter relationships, how patriarchal structures shape women’s lives, and how patterns of behaviour, belief, and survival move through generations.
Director Orobosa Ikponmwen said in a statement: “During production, what struck me most was how deeply the story mirrored the lived experiences of the women around us: our cast, our crew, and the communities we filmed within. This film became less about telling a story and more about listening: to mothers, to daughters, to the quiet moments where love and resentment coexist.”
She added, “Adanne is an attempt to break the silence without spectacle. It is about the small, intimate violences we normalise in families, and the tenderness that survives in spite of them… My hope is that it invites audiences to see themselves and perhaps begin conversations they have long avoided.”
Shot at select locations in Ibadan, Nigeria, Adanne is currently in post-production and is eyeing an international festival run across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.