Former Big Brother Naija housemate, Ifu Ennada, has released her short film titled "Tears of a Broken Virgin."
Written and produced by Ifu Ennada and directed by Benedict Alli (Kobo Productions), the film was inspired by Ifu's real-life rape experience.
"In 2016, I was sexually assaulted by someone in the entertainment industry, before then I was a Virgin. This person also infected me with an STI," she told Pulse Nigeria.
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After the rape, the actress was threatened by the rapist. She was also very scared of the victim shaming that often follows on social media with questions such as: "what was she wearing?" " why did she go to his house?"
"So in all my sadness and depression, I decided to tell the world what had happened to me using film as a medium. I was inspired to write and produce my film "Tears of A Broken Virgin."
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For the short film, Ifu got a lot of help from social media. People volunteered to work on the project for free, including the director, Benny Alli Atagame.
Though some parts of "Tears of a Broken Virgin" is fiction, Ifu says a bulk of it was inspired by her story: The lead character's name is Ada, which is a short form of her name Adanne, popularly pronounced as Ennada.
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During her stay in the "Big Brother Naija" house, Ifu was one of the housemates who was not romantically involved with anyone.
During a Truth or Dare game, she had said that she had not really had sex, starting conversations online about her virginity.
According to the evicted housemate, after the rape incident, she plunged into a severe depression and developed trust issues which has made it hard for her to connect to men.
"Because of my sad experience I battled depression, developed trust issues and found it hard to connect with people especially men. This is one of the reasons I stayed away from males in the house."
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With "Tears of a Broken Virgin," Ifu intends to pass a strong message to rape victims and rapists.
She also intends to expand the short film into a feature-length film, aimed at inspiring people to stand up against rape.
About "Tears of a Broken Virgin"
In "Tears of a Broken Virgin," a vengeful rape victim goes on an unconventional revenge mission, and not even the marriage proposal from the rapist can change her mind.
"Tears of a Broken Virgin" garnered eight nominations at the In-shorts Film festival and earned Ifu Ennada the best actress Award 2018.
watch teaser below
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