LFF tea puts Manila neo-noir and Nigerian family drama in focus
Filmmakers from Asia, Africa and Europe traded craft notes at the 70th BFI London Film Festival in a Filmmaker Afternoon Tea built around three features. The line-up brought together Moonglow, The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives and My Notes on Mars, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
Manila leads the first thread. Isabel Sandoval wrote, directed and stars in Moonglow. The film is a neo-noir, a crime story full of shadows and moral grey areas, set in 1970s Manila. It follows a police officer turned criminal who comes under investigation by her former lover.
Sandoval told the session the film continues a personal thread. She previously made Lingua Franca. Moonglow is her second film to tackle martial law in the Philippines, she said.
She is already looking further back for the next one. Sandoval said she is working on a new project about a covert CIA psyop set in the Philippines in the 1960s. Psyop is short for psychological operation, a secret campaign to shape what people believe.
Then to Nigeria. Daniel Oriahi is the director and co-writer of The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives. The film is an adaptation, a screen version, of Lola Shoneyin's novel of the same name. Oriahi co-wrote it with Adze Ugah, Heidi Uys and Mo Abudu.
The story stays inside one crowded household. It centres on patriarch Baba Segi and his three wives. Their balance breaks with the arrival of a fourth wife, university-educated and unable to conceive.
The third title held its own slot in the festival programme. My Notes on Mars was programmed in the 2026 festival, according to BFI. The listing set an 18:00 screening on Friday 16 October 2026 at BFI Southbank. Moonglow was also programmed in the 2026 festival.
What makes this stand out is the spread of jobs on display. Sandoval carries three roles on one film. Oriahi shares writing across a team of four. And the session put a 1970s crime story, a present-day family drama and a third festival title in the same room.
