Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo dunks during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Orlando Magic Monday, Dec. 9, 2019, in Milwaukee. The Bucks won 110-101. (AP Photo/Morry Gash) ORG XMIT: WIMG120
Releasing on September 21
WhatApp, the well-known messaging service owned by tech juggernaut Meta, will debut its first original entertainment project later this month with a short film starring NBA player Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The 2021 NBA All-Star MVP and the Milwaukee Bucks’ NBA Finals champion, Antetokounmpo was born in Greece of Nigerian parents. That year, he was named MVP of the NBA All-Star game. According to WhatsApp, in the 12-minute movie, titled “Naija Odyssey,” the professional basketball player “tells his origin story of many origins as he reconciles his roots, birthplace, and sense of belonging between cross-cultural worlds.” In February of this year, WhatsApp and the athlete signed a sponsorship agreement.
The narrative of “Naija Odyssey,” which is narrated by Antetokounmpo and his mother Veronica and depicts various moments in his life, is loosely based on the famous Greek epic poem “The Odyssey.” In the voiceover for the movie’s trailer, Antetokounmpo says, “In Greece, my teachers told stories of travellers battling the sea, fighting to find their way home—to find themselves” (watch below). “I was travelling at the same time.”
Filmmakers Nono Ayuso and Rodrigo Inada are in charge of directing “Naija Odyssey,” and Mikkel E.G. Nielsen, who won the 2021 Oscar for “Sound of Metal” from Amazon Studios, is in charge of the film’s editing. On September 21, WhatsApp will make the movie available on its social media platforms, YouTube, and Amazon Prime Video.
Why did WhatsApp hire the filmmaker? The project is actually branded content designed to capitalise on Antetokounmpo’s global notoriety and spread the idea that WhatsApp can unite people. According to Vivian Odior, WhatsApp’s global head of marketing, “‘Naija Odyssey’ is a story that reinforces how WhatsApp helps us embrace our multifaceted lives. “WhatsApp is there in helping you navigate relationships, identity, and even adversity, enabling you to embrace all sides of you by connecting you to those who matter most,” the company says.
The inspirational message of “Naija Odyssey” seems to be intended in part to refute the claim that WhatsApp has exacerbated social divisions and helped spread misinformation, which in some cases has resulted in actual violence.
WhatsApp was purchased by Meta (formerly Facebook) in 2014 for $19 billion. There are currently over 2 billion monthly users of WhatsApp. The FTC claims that the acquisition of WhatsApp was a part of Facebook’s anticompetitive strategy to acquire potential rivals and cites the deal in its ongoing antitrust lawsuit against the parent company. The FTC’s allegations, according to Meta, represent “an effort to rewrite antitrust laws and upend established expectations of merger review.”
Watch the trailer for Antetokounmpo’s “Naija Odyssey”: