Reasserting Tunde Kelani’s Auteurism: A Review of his Artistic Signature in Arugba

Abstract

Tunde Kelani (TK) is one of the few astute filmmakers of the African continent whose cinematic works defy laid-down artistic styles and conventions. He expresses his cinematic language and narrative styles, which famously pay high credence to Yoruba cosmology, beliefs, and poetic and folkloric narrative elegance. Tunde Kelani’s auteurial and linguistic styles reflect every other artistic work he produces. Apart from giving his audience something of traditional and Afrocentric worth, he heightens themes of corruption and its devastating consequences on society through his films. Through content analysis, this article considers the thematic concerns of Tunde Kelani’s Arugba (2009). The term, auteurism is not a new concept when it comes to appraising the works of Tunde Kelani but new in the filmic discourse of Arugba (2009). Tunde’s cinematic signature is expounded to give insight into the themes raised as a means of explication. The conclusion reached is that TK exudes ideological, cultural, poetic and metaphysical motifs in the film Arugba (2009) in ways that intensify his concerns about the decaying political and societal rot within African society.