Ifu Ennada, ex-housemate of the Big Brother Naija, says she was raped in 2016 and consequently suffered from depression.
The reality show star is now sharing her story in a short film.
She said the 20-minute film was made to raise awareness on the rape culture in the society.
“The truth is in 2016 I was raped by someone in the entertainment industry… before then I was a virgin,” she said.
“This person also infected me with an STI… I was also threatened by this person and was very scared of social media’s bashing with the usual questions of ‘what was she wearing’, ‘why did she go to his house?’… so in all my sadness and depression I decided to tell the world what had happened to me using film as a medium.
“Because of my sad experience I battled depression, developed trust issues and found it hard to connect with people especially men.”
To make something good out of a bad situation the young filmmaker was “inspired to write and produce my film – ‘Tears of A Broken Virgin’.
“I got a lot of help from social media – people volunteered to work for me free of charge even my director – Benny Atagame Alli.
“Though some parts of my film is fiction, the bulk of it was inspired by my story. The lead character’s name is Ada which is a short form of my name Adanne- popularly pronounced as Ennada.
“I wanted to tell my story and also pass a strong message to rape victims and rapists. I hope I was able to do that with my film.”
Ifu says she intends to “expand this into a feature length film” with the hope that people get “inspired to stand up against rape”.
Watch below.
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