When Bridgerton (2020) and Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (2023) were released, tongues wagged, eyes rolled and heads turned because—as some people asked—what business did Black people have being aristocrats in England’s high society in the regency era? Hallie Bailey’s role as Ariel in Disney’s Little Mermaid (2023) received similar reactions from White people who wanted Ariel’s character to remain White, while Black kids all over the internet pointed at TV screens saying “see, she looks like me.” In a similar manner, Chioma Akpotha’s role as Olori Chiamaka—being Igbo, a culture contiguous to the Yoruba one—in Seven Doors first left me—and some other people, I am sure—a little perplexed as to how to receive the idea of an Igbo woman being queen of a Yoruba kingdom. But after a rethink, I am now one of the people who applaud her character as a major representation of and a poster reference for cross-cultural harmony: something to point to.

To me, films achieve their greatest impact when they can change my perception of what is familiar and make it easier for me to acknowledge what is possible but uneasy to accept in the real world. This brings to mind Win Wender's words, “films can heal! Not the world, of course, but our vision of it, and that's already enough.” Seven Doors, a collaboration between Femi Adebayo and Netflix released in December 2024, is a solid example of cross cultural harmony in film, the first in Nigeria that I have seen in a while. Like Queen Charlotte, played by Golda Rosheuvel and India Amarteifo, in Bridgerton and Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story represents the possibility of Black British royalty, Chioma Akpotha’s character as Chiamaka represents the possiblity of Igbo—Yoruba royalty. 

Seven Doors has expanded the audience that could believe and thus accept that possibility; and the fact that the series is thriving could serve to show how well-received the idea may be. Although Queen Charlotte or any of the Black aristocrats did not exactly exist at the time, Bridgerton suggests the possibility in such a way that the actual reality itself feels familiar when we encounter it. For example, having seen Bridgerton, I did not find it exactly new when I read Meghan Markle, a Black woman, is a British royalty by marriage. It almost felt like déjà vu. My deduction is if a film that suggests an idea could thrive, the reality of such idea could also be largely acceptable. Similarly, what Seven Doors has done is to increase how believable it is that an Igbo woman can thrive in traditional Yoruba aristocracy and, by extension, that Igbo people can thrive in Yorubaland, and Yorubas can find family with the Igbos.

Before Seven Doors, Nigerian culture-based films that I had seen all sought to celebrate the uniqueness of cultures in a single-focus manner whereby one culture is exclusively focused on and others relegated to being treated as alien or subordinates. Against this backdrop, Seven Doors is even more precious, narrative-changing and plot-bending. I find the short scene of the Hausa investor, played by Saeed Mohammed, in Episode 2 striking. While most Nigerian films have a traditional role for Hausas as domestic security (gateman) or the Aboki that runs a kiosk down the street, the Hausa man in Seven Doors is an investor whose investment holds great promise for the Yoruba kingdom of Ilara. Whatever the producer Femi Adebayo intended, he has done something different when it comes to how different cultures are represented in Nigerian films. The producer himself calls the film a love letter to Nigerian cultures, not just Yoruba. How else do you express that love if not by casting those representing them in exalted roles and not relegating them to stereotypical ones? Also, Femi Adebayo (as Ademidun) and Chioma Akpotha (as Chiamaka) reflects that love. I see the sincerity of their love as the film’s message that we could achieve sincere unity as a nation of many cultures.

Admittedly, there are films that have promoted cross-cultural harmony, but I have yet to see any that does so at the highest level of traditional authority—the monarchy. That is why I place Seven Doors side by side Bridgerton and Little Mermaid. Like Chiamaka in Seven Doors, Charlotte is a queen, Ariel a princess and queen apparent. Chiamaka is symbolic of that understanding Nigeria could achieve as a multicultural nation. Her respect for Ademidun’s culture and the conscious efforts she made to understand it and Ademidun’s reciprocity are the true highlights of Seven Doors for me. Two scenes stand out in this regard. First, the scene where Chiamaka’s people felicitate with Ademidun during his coronation ceremony as king of Ilara; second, the scene where her people help to ritually fortify Ademidun for his fight against Esusu, his greatest antagonist. The message passed there, I think, is that at the points of our greatest triumphs and trials as a people, we should remain unified because we have a shared destiny. 

Watch SEVEN DOORS on Netflix via this link:https://www.netflix.com/us/title/81906877?s=a&trkid=13747225&trg=wha&vlang=en&clip=81937342