On April 18th 2025, Nigerian moviegoers saw a side to Ibrahim Chatta that they had never seen before in the Most Anticipated film of the year 2025, MAKEMATION.
Nigeria and by extension, Africa, is the way it is today because of family and societal pressures that prevent advancement. These societal pressures stem from a lack of access to education. As a result, characters like Jato Sodangi, who Ibrahim Chatta portrays in MAKEMATION, populate the streets.
They sit down in their shops, kiosks and business centres, trying to make ends meet and refusing to adapt to change. They are comfortable in their mediocrity and resist education for themselves and their family. These people want to maintain their status quo, believing that it is their safety net.
They are afraid to take risks.
Does this storyline sound familiar?
MAKEMATION and Ibrahim Chatta: A Partnership for Representation
This film is a family film, first of all. It tells a story of Africa as it is today, showing the values that have kept us going and showing the challenges that draw us back.
Next, it is a futuristic film. It tells a story of how tech and AI can help to improve the quality of our lives. First, it can improve the lives lived by families, then the society and then the country,
These two key focuses of the film require the right representation. What better way to pass across this message than through a familiar messenger?
Ibrahim Chatta has worked in Nollywood for nearly two decades and has built a cult following. His many characters have been relatable and have even sparked conversations. Having him play a lowly blue collar welder to show those he was representing the error of their ways, was a masterstroke by the film’s casting department.
The veteran truly embodied the blue-collar distrust for technologies of the “white man” that, in two hours, fans became antagonists.
This massive shift is how you know that Ibrahim Chatta did his job brilliantly. It is also why you should see MAKEMATION.
He stars in the film alongside Wumi Toriola, Toyin Afolayan (Lola Idije), Adesege Adeniji (Westybaba), Jide Kosoko, among others. Audiences can now watch the film in cinemas across Nigeria. Nile Entertainment is distributing the film, produced by Rise Interactive Studios.
