Before Onobiren reached cinema screens, its music had already begun to move. The theme song, gentle, haunting and deeply emotive, found its way across social media, carried by its melody and quiet intensity. People shared it in fragments, replayed it, hummed along, even before they fully understood the story it belonged to. By the time the film arrived in theatres, the music had already done its work.
Laju Iren is not the kind of Nollywood figure you instantly recognise. She is not on screen, not the face on posters, not the one drawing crowds by sheer celebrity. Yet as a filmmaker, writer and founder of Laju Iren Films, she has quietly built a body of work around faith and emotionally grounded storytelling. With Onobiren, she and her team have done what many with far more visibility struggle to pull off.
The numbers tell part of the story. Within three weeks of release, the film crossed ₦100 million. By the end of seven weeks, it had pulled in ₦138.1 million, holding the number one spot in West Africa for two consecutive weeks and becoming the highest grossing film of March 2026. That is when you call it a standout cinema success.
Produced with support from Africa No Filter and CcHub Creative Economy, the film reflects a blend of creative vision and institutional backing. But ask Iren how it all came together, and she doesn’t reach for strategy first.
“The strategic move was God. When I look at our journey since we started making films in 2020, I know that everything that led us to this moment was largely because of His orchestration. He gave us the ideas and the technical know how to make the film in the first place, and I am very grateful for that.”
Faith, for her, is not separate from the work. But neither is craft.
“It is more difficult to sell a bad film than to sell a good one. It is difficult to sell any film, but when a film is good, it makes it easier to sell.”
That thinking carried into how the film was rolled out. The groundwork started long before opening day, teasers, music, social media, all carefully timed.
“By December, we already had a teaser and the song out, and everybody was in love with it. We were very intentional about social media marketing, telling our story, taking pre orders and staying in people’s faces constantly.”
What followed felt less like a typical cinema run and more like a shared experience. Women’s groups organised outings. Business communities bought out entire halls. Schools showed up in numbers. And then there were the quieter moments, the ones that carried the film furthest.
“I would just see people say, ‘My girlfriends and I’ or ‘My women friends and I.’ I loved that so much. It brought a lot of camaraderie.”
The film may have been aimed largely at women, Onobiren means ‘woman,’ and it released during Women’s Month, but it didn’t stay in that box.
“We really did target the female audience, and that’s because most of our work has been largely consumed by women. But we also have a healthy male audience, and the faith based community really took this as their film.”
Online, the energy continued.
“There were people who would not normally post on social media collaborating with us after seeing the film.”
The user generated content extended the marketing budget further than money alone could have.
She also praised the cast and crew for their contributions to the film’s success.
“I would also like to take this opportunity to appreciate our cast and crew, who went above and beyond to ensure the success of Onobiren.”
For someone at the centre of it all, Iren remains almost indifferent to the spotlight. She laughs off the idea of acting.
“I am not an actor. Acting is not my specialty, even though I have done a few cameos. I don’t have the patience for it, and I don’t even remember my lines, even when I wrote them.”
Her focus stays where it has always been, on the story, and on the audience that shows up for it.
“We cannot talk about the success of Onobiren without the audience. People came out en masse, old and young, the Christian community, women, so many communities came together to support the film.”
For those who missed it on the big screen, the film’s journey is not over. Following its cinema run, Onobiren will be available on virtual cinema from May 1 to May 5, 2026, a final window to catch one of the year’s most talked about releases before it moves on.
As for Iren, the lesson the journey has most reinforced is a simple one.
“I am not famous enough to relax. Even those who are very famous are consistently working.”
The journey has only reaffirmed what she has always believed, that success is not a cue to slow down, but a call to keep building.
And so, with faith as her anchor and grit as her drive, she isn’t relenting just yet.
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