"No U-Turn" receives Special Mention 

"No U-Turn" by Nollywood filmmaker Ike Nnaebue is screening at the Berlin International Film Festival in the festival's Panorama section through February 20th. Susanne Schüle, a member of the three-member international jury for the Berlinale Documentary Award, honored it with the Special Mention for its outstanding achievement in documentary filmmaking. 

"We give the Special Mention to a film that sensitively gives voice to the people of Nigeria who are in a state of constant transit in their desperate search for a viable future. We rejoice with Ike Nnaebue and his team for 'No U-Turn'," said Schüle during the award ceremony. 

Natascha Schwanke, Director of Media Development for DW Akademie, congratulated Nnaebue on his success:  

"Ike Nnaebue has managed to tell his personal story in impressive images. He shows people with hopes and dreams and gives a face to those who often only appear as numbers in statistics. This film develops and changes the narrative around migration. Stories like this create respect and compassion beyond all mental and geographical boundaries." 

In the bus: A scene from the film "No U-Turn" by Ike Nnaebue

"No U-Turn" (Nigeria / France / South Africa) was nominated together with 17 other films for the Berlinale Documentary Award. In his film, Ike Nnaebue retraces a journey he made 27 years ago, when he left Nigeria as a young man to try and reach Europe by road. Along the way, he meets those who are taking the same trip today to search for a better life and, through conversations with them, tries to understand the aspirations of young people in West Africa. With images of people lured into slavery and bondage along the routes in North Africa all over social media and the internet, most young people are aware of the dangers of traveling undocumented by road. Yet more and more women are joining the ranks of those who risk this journey.  

Producer Don Edkins (left) of STEPS, DW Akademie's partner organization in the Generation Africa project, and filmmaker Ike Nnaebue (right) at a Berlinale photo call

The film is Nnaebue’s first documentary and was developed as part of the Generation Africa project. With the support of filmmakers in emerging film markets, BMZ, DW Akademie and STEPS are actively contributing to social change, freedom of expression and the economic empowerment of local storytellers. All Generation Africa films will be screened by the French-German public broadcaster Arte in early summer 2022. 

"No U-Turn" was produced by Okey Omeire for Passion8 Communications (Nigeria), Christilla Huillard-Kann for Elda Production (France) and Don Edkins and Tiny Mungwe for STEPS (South Africa).