cinematography
KC Obiajulu
editing
Olalekan Afolabi
music
Re Olunuga
sound
Kolade Morakinyo
production design
Abisola Omolade
costumes
Ajah Enene-Orimogunje

cast
Bimbo Akintola (Ade)
Tosin Adeyemi (Titi)
Lanre Hassan (Mama)
William Benson (Michael)
Antar Laniyan (Alhaji)
Uzoamaka Power (Lizzy)
Michelle Dede (Victoria)
Chioma Omeruah “Chigul” (Cassandra)

production
2o9ine Films
co-productions
Mayana Films
Depth and Optics Productions
Zynox Productions

producers
Damilola Orimogunje
Ajah Enene-Orimogunje
Bose Oshin
co-producers
Zorana Mušikić
May Odeh
Joshua Alabi
with the support of
Hubert Bals Fund+ Europe

In southwestern Nigeria in the 1990s, sisters Ade and Titi Ajayi lead vastly different lives under the shadow of their late father in his home. Ade, a devout Christian and the family’s sole breadwinner, struggles to understand her younger sister Titi, an aspiring singer whose independent spirit challenges convention. When their ailing mother comes to live with them, old resentments resurface, forcing both women to confront grief, faith, ambition and the fragile bonds that hold a family together. As each sister searches for love, purpose and freedom, their choices begin to reshape not only their own futures, but the lives of everyone around them. Through intimate domestic spaces, music and visual art, Dear Ajayi is a deeply human portrait of family, sacrifice and the enduring hope of finding one’s place in the world.

2026 Dear Ajayi
2020 For Maria Ebun Pataki
2018 Losing My Religion (short)
2017 Mo (short)

“I have always been drawn to the quiet moments that shape our lives more profoundly than the dramatic ones. The conversations left unfinished, the sacrifices made without recognition, the dreams quietly abandoned, and the ways families continue to love one another despite the weight they place on each other. I believe the ordinary deserves the same cinematic attention we often reserve for the extraordinary. Dear Ajayi grew from my desire to explore those emotional spaces. [...] As a filmmaker, I am interested in observation rather than judgment. I try to approach every character with empathy, allowing contradictions to exist without seeking easy answers. I believe cinema is at its most powerful when it trusts audiences to discover meaning through gesture, silence and everyday life rather than explanation. For me, cinema is where images, music, silence, and performance come together to express what words often cannot. Shooting the film entirely with a single lens became a way of preserving a singular emotional perspective, while music and stillness were allowed to carry feelings that dialogue could not. (Damilola Orimogunje)

Damilola Orimogunje is a Nigerian filmmaker drawn to the quiet emotional landscapes of ordinary lives, exploring stories of family, memory, faith, love and hope. His debut feature, For Maria Ebun Pataki (2020), premiered at Film Africa London, where it won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature. As a producer, he also produced All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and won the Teddy Award for Best Feature. Dear Ajayi is his second feature film.