Ayo Lawson, queer indie filmmaker, presented their film, Unburied, at the Lagos premiere on the 24th of May, 2025.

The film, which stars Alexandra Maduagwu, Agumuo Osinachi and Dolapo Osunsina, is a story about a masc presenting queer person in a forest attempting to bury a corpse, they find themselves haunted by a masquerade as they are forced to confront their past of being misunderstood and condemned by their conservative overly spiritual mother.

The film interchanging between them in the forest and the memories of the heavy conversations with their mother, the past being presented visually in a void inspired by Stranger Things and Get Out, as Kai’s mother, shrouded in a stark darkness, constantly refers to them by their deadname, alludes to being sentimentally swayed by the church and rejecting the child that she birthed because of their sexuality, Kai stuck in a panic, pleading that their mother listens to them, hears them out, to no avail, conversion therapy ensues, prayers and brooms and candles.

A provocative transition story, death, purgatory and rebirth, the film starts with the death, the purgatory is Kai reliving the trauma of their mother, only for love to inevitably prevail and pull Kai out of the recession into acceptance, rebirth, the corpse being buried is the Kai of the past, the masquerade is the Kai of the future, unmasked, unburied, phoenix from the ashes.

Ayo Lawson conjures up experiences and situations familiar to a majority of queer people in Nigeria, the rejection of yourself by the people closest to you, even by your own self, the struggle to understand, the toss and turn of emotions and discomfort, but in this film, the light is salvation, Kai’s lover is the light, the only time the screen isn’t dominated by darkness is when they are they with Kai, healing them, comforting them.

The film is heavy, scenes are met with winces and gasps and sobs, but that’s the point, Ayo doesn’t attempt to sugarcoat or protect you from the events occurring on screen, especially as they happen just exactly in real life, death and purgatory are not sweet experiences, they are agony and pain, but rebirth, that is the beginning of something new and true, this is where the cheers and applause comes in. A reclamation. An optimistic triumph.

The film will be screening next at the Lagos Queer Film Festival on the 14-15th of June.