A Land Apart — Cast, Plot and What to Know Before It Hits Cinemas October 23

🎬 Quick Summary: A Land Apart is a 120-minute Nigerian alternate-history drama written by Emil Garuba and Echobu Michael Garuba and directed by Bem Pever for Sutoritera and Take 7 Media. It won Best Feature Film at the 2026 Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) and was selected for the NiFS x CACOP Best of Africa Film Showcase at Cannes. It opens in Nigerian cinemas nationwide on Thursday October 23, 2026, distributed by Nile Entertainment (Moses Babatope). The film imagines a Nigeria that never discovered crude oil, building its prosperity on agriculture instead — specifically through an agribusiness mogul named Ahura whose empire is built on a formula called AX-103, credited with saving a continent from famine. When Ahura is killed just before a major international trade deal, his secret daughter Dooshima Bida Ahura must confront superpowers, a hostile family, and corporate assassins to secure her inheritance. The cast includes Richard Mofe-Damijo (RMD), Sam Dede, Onyeka Onwenu, Daniel Etim Effiong, Frank Donga, Princess Muffedah as Dooshima, Ummi Baba-Ahmed, Adam Garba, Iveren Antiev, Ronya Man, and Preach Bassey.

Every Nigerian has thought about what this country might look like without oil. Not without the income — though Nigerians have thought about that too — but without the specific distortion that the discovery of crude in 1956 introduced into the political economy, the moral imagination, and the daily life of a nation that was, before that discovery, building something different. Agriculture. Manufacturing. Regional trade. A Land Apart is the first Nigerian film to ask that question not in an essay or an op-ed but in a story — a full 120-minute narrative with real stakes, real characters, and a plot that manages to be a family drama, a corporate thriller, and a geopolitical speculation all at once. It won Best Feature Film at the Zanzibar International Film Festival. It opens in Nigerian cinemas on October 23. Here is everything you need to know.

A Land Apart — Key Facts

What Is A Land Apart About — The Full Plot Explained

(cite index=”53-1″>A Land Apart is set in an alternate version of Nigeria, imagining a country where agriculture, rather than crude oil, became the foundation of its economy and global influence. The story revolves around Ahura, a powerful agribusiness mogul who has built an enormous agricultural empire based on AX-103, a formula that is credited with saving a continent from famine. His success has established him as one of the most influential men in an alternate Nigeria. However, his empire and legacy come under threat when his secret daughter, Dooshima Bida Ahura, portrayed by Princess Muffedah, is poised to inherit what he has built.

(cite index=”53-1″>The official synopsis for its showcase at Cannes states that Dekera is killed just before a major international trade deal, leaving Dooshima to confront superpowers, a hostile family, and corporate assassins as she fights to secure her inheritance. The structure of the film — an assassination, a secret heir, a contested fortune, and international forces converging on a single woman who has never asked for any of this — is classical thriller architecture. What makes A Land Apart unusual is the premise it places that architecture inside: not colonial history or contemporary Lagos crime but a speculative reality where Nigeria’s entire trajectory was shaped by a different discovery, and the empire at stake is agricultural rather than petrochemical.

AX-103 — the agricultural formula that underpins Ahura’s empire — is the film’s most original invention. It is a transparent stand-in for oil: a resource that, in the right hands, built wealth, power, and global influence, and that, in the wrong hands, could be weaponised, monopolised, or stolen. By replacing oil with an agricultural formula, the film asks something more specific than “what if Nigeria had no oil?” It asks: what if the thing Nigeria monopolised was something that fed people rather than something that burned? What would the global power dynamics look like? Who would want to steal it? Who would kill to control it? Those questions are the engine of the thriller plot, and the thriller plot is the vehicle for an argument about Nigeria’s relationship to its own resources that goes well beyond what any documentary could say.

The Cast — Who Plays Who

Princess Muffedah as Dooshima Bida Ahura

Princess Muffedah — a Nigerian actress who has been building her profile across television and film in recent years — carries the film’s central role as Dooshima, the secret daughter whose existence Ahura kept hidden and whose inheritance becomes the target of every antagonist in the story. A character who begins as an outsider to power and must rapidly acquire the vocabulary, the relationships, and the ruthlessness to defend what she has been thrust into inheriting is one of the most demanding roles available to a young actress. Muffedah’s casting signals both the production’s confidence in her range and the filmmakers’ deliberate choice to build their alternate-Nigeria story around a woman who was not supposed to be there.

Richard Mofe-Damijo (RMD)

Richard Mofe-Damijo — born 6 July 1961 in Delta State, former Delta State Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, veteran of decades of Nigerian film and television — appears in A Land Apart in a role that production materials describe as central to the power structure of the alternate Nigeria. His third major 2026 film appearance (after The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives on December 4 and The Four on December 11) makes him one of the most prolific presences in Nigerian cinema this year. His ability to embody authority — specifically the authority of men who have built systems they intend to outlive themselves — makes him essential casting in a story about an empire and its succession.

Sam Dede, Onyeka Onwenu, Daniel Etim Effiong, Frank Donga

Sam Dede — born 17 January 1965 in Rivers State, a veteran of both Nollywood English and Yoruba cinema — brings his specific blend of intelligence and menace to the alternate-Nigeria political landscape. Onyeka Onwenu — born 8 May 1956 in Rivers State, singer, actress, and former Director-General of the National Centre for Women Development — gives the film a cultural and moral weight that only her specific history and presence can provide. Daniel Etim Effiong — fresh from his AMVCA 2026 Best Lead Actor win for Colours of Fire — is one of the most sought-after dramatic actors in Nigerian cinema right now. Frank Donga — born Adebowale Adedayo, known for his dry wit and character precision — brings tonal range to a film that would otherwise risk becoming too earnest about its own ambition.

The Director — Bem Pever and the Alternate History Genre in Nollywood

Bem Pever is a Nigerian filmmaker whose work has been exploring the intersection of politics, identity, and speculative storytelling — a relatively rare space in contemporary Nollywood, which has historically been more comfortable with social realism and genre romance than with alternate history or speculative fiction. A Land Apart represents not just a career statement for Pever but a genre statement for Nigerian cinema: that the Nollywood industry is now capable of sustaining a 120-minute, festival-winning, Cannes-selected alternate-history drama. The film’s Best Feature Film win at ZIFF 2026 — one of Africa’s most prestigious film festivals — and its Cannes selection confirm that the ambition was matched by the execution.

Why “What If Nigeria Had No Oil?” Is the Most Important Question in Nigerian Cinema Right Now

Nigeria discovered oil in commercial quantities at Oloibiri in the Niger Delta in 1956. That discovery preceded independence by four years — and everything about the country that followed, from the structure of its federal system to the incentives of its political class to the neglect of its agricultural sector to the environmental devastation of the Niger Delta to the specific corruption that has defined its governance, flows directly or indirectly from that discovery and what was done with it.

The “resource curse” — the documented tendency for countries with large natural resource endowments to experience worse economic growth, weaker institutions, and more conflict than comparable countries without those resources — is one of the most robust findings in development economics. Nigeria is its most discussed African case study. A Land Apart does not propose a solution to the resource curse. It imagines, at the level of character and story, what a Nigeria shaped by a different founding resource might have looked like — and uses that imagination to say something about what Nigeria, shaped by oil, actually is. That is what the best speculative fiction does: it uses the impossible to illuminate the actual. A Land Apart earns its place in that tradition.

Where to Watch A Land Apart in Nigerian Cinemas

A Land Apart opens in Nigerian cinemas nationwide on Thursday October 23, 2026, distributed by Nile Entertainment. It will screen at Filmhouse Cinemas, Genesis Deluxe Cinemas, Silverbird Cinemas, and other major cinema chains across Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and other Nigerian cities. Check your nearest cinema’s website or app for screening times and ticket availability from October 23.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is A Land Apart about?

A Land Apart is a 120-minute Nigerian alternate-history drama set in a version of Nigeria that never discovered crude oil — instead building its wealth and global influence through agriculture. The story follows Dooshima Bida Ahura (Princess Muffedah), the secret daughter of a powerful agribusiness mogul named Ahura whose empire is built on AX-103, a formula credited with saving a continent from famine. When Ahura is killed before a major international trade deal, Dooshima must fight corporate assassins, a hostile family, and global superpowers to secure her inheritance. It opens in Nigerian cinemas on October 23, 2026.

Who is in the cast of A Land Apart?

The cast includes Princess Muffedah as Dooshima Bida Ahura (lead), Richard Mofe-Damijo (RMD), Sam Dede, Onyeka Onwenu, Daniel Etim Effiong, Frank Donga, Ummi Baba-Ahmed, Adam Garba, Iveren Antiev, Ronya Man, and Preach Bassey. The film is directed by Bem Pever and written by Emil Garuba and Echobu Michael Garuba for Sutoritera and Take 7 Media.

Did A Land Apart win any awards?

Yes. A Land Apart won Best Feature Film at the 2026 Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF), where it had its world premiere on June 27, 2026. It was also selected for the NiFS x CACOP Best of Africa Film Showcase at the Cannes Film Festival. It opens in Nigerian cinemas on October 23, 2026, distributed by Nile Entertainment.

When does A Land Apart open in Nigerian cinemas?

A Land Apart opens in Nigerian cinemas nationwide on Thursday October 23, 2026, distributed by Nile Entertainment (Moses Babatope). Check the websites or apps of Filmhouse Cinemas, Genesis Deluxe, and Silverbird Cinemas for screening times and ticket availability from October 23.

What does “What if Nigeria had never discovered oil?” mean in A Land Apart?

A Land Apart is set in an alternate version of Nigeria where crude oil was never discovered — and where the country built its global influence through agriculture instead. The film uses this “what if” premise to explore what Nigeria might look like with different economic foundations, and to tell a story about power, inheritance, and survival that uses the alternate reality to illuminate questions about Nigeria’s actual relationship to its resources. The specific invention is AX-103 — an agricultural formula whose inventor became as powerful as any oil magnate, and whose death triggers the film’s central conflict.

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Sources

1. NollyCritic — “A Land Apart: See the Official Trailer of Bem Pever’s Political Drama” — nollycritic.com — 2026
2. WhatKeptMeUp — “Nile Entertainment Maps Out Diverse October Slate With Five Nigerian Releases” — whatkeptmeup.com — September 9, 2026
3. WhatKeptMeUp — “Nollywood Distilled: The Stories That Mattered This Week” — whatkeptmeup.com — September 6, 2026
4. Sinema Focus / NTA — “A Land Apart — ZIFF 2026 Best Feature Film” — sinemafocus.com — 2026

Last updated: 30 September 2026 · NaijaSabi Entertainment Desk