A Nigerian Filmmaker Hungry to Elevate Nollywood’s Thrills

The bustling Nigerian film industry known as Nollywood certainly keeps directors busy: In the past decade, Daniel Oriahi has made over 25 movies. But the filmmaker hit a new career breakthrough when the Tribeca Festival accepted his latest, “The Weekend,” a simmering thriller about in-laws with nightmarish appetites.

The selection brings the 41-year-old director welcome recognition after years of churning out movies. “You’re like, ‘Where does it end?’” Oriahi said of the relentless pace. “The Weekend,” premiering Sunday, is intended as a polished, genre-bending departure from Nollywood quickies, and it screens in the mature-themed Midnight section of the festival, which runs Wednesday through June 16.

Oriahi’s debut feature in 2013 was a psychological thriller called “Misfit,” and he scored a breakthrough hit in 2015 with the action comedy “Taxi Driver: Oko Ashewo,” set in the Nigerian capital, Lagos.

Oriahi’s love of movies dates back to his childhood in the small town of Ewu when he drew comics of films like “Die Hard with a Vengeance” and watched Steven Spielberg pictures on cable television. After attending film school in Nigeria, he founded his own production company, meeting demand with supply.

In “The Weekend,” normal tensions escalate to grisly demands as Nikya (Uzoamaka Aniunoh) and her fiancé, Luke (Bucci Franklin), grapple with his cheery but profoundly unsettling family. In a video interview, Oriahi spoke about keeping the audience on tenterhooks, the challenges of Nollywood and his filmmaking heroes. The conversation has been edited and condensed.