Obi Emelonye’s new film, Mirror Boy, which has been showing at cinemas across the world, contains several striking similarities with the 2009 runaway bestseller, The Abyssinian Boy by Onyeka Nwelue.

The Abyssinian Boy, published by DADA Books in Nigeria in 2009 and Serene Woods in India in 2010, is the simple story of a 9 year-old David, who, on his trip from India to Nigeria with his parents, travels in dreams with an albino dwarf, Nfanfa who keeps appearing only to him.

Nigerian actress, who starred in Mirror Boy has described the film this way: “I was impressed with the way the writer spinned a whole lot around a simple story of mother and child and a spirit. It is told in such a way that you feel the three distinct characters. You feel the pain of a mother whose child is missing, you feel the trouble of an African boy born in the U.K now in search of an identity, and you feel the emotion of a reincarnated father who doesn’t want his biological child lost in the world of ‘missed identity’. It is the kind of story that touches you from the screen so I am not surprised at the success so far at the cinema’, she explained.

When reached on his cell phone and informed of the similarities between “Mirror Boy” and “The Abyssinian Boy”, Nwelue said, “No comment. I have seen the film.”

Nwelue has refused to comment further.

Nwelue, author of The Abyssinian Boy, was born on 31 January, 1988 in Nigeria and left for India when he was 18, where he wrote his first novel in 3 months. Three months after the release of the book by DADA Books, Lagos, Danish filmmaker, Lasse Lau indicated interest to buy the film rights, to be produced by KRAN Film, Belgium.
The Abyssinian Boy won the TM ALUKO Prize for First Book of Fiction, IBRAHIM TAHIR Prize for Fiction at the 2009 Abuja Writers’ Forum Literary Festival, nominated for the Creative Artist of the Year at the Future Awards 2010 and is being studied at universities and colleges across Nigeria, India and Hong Kong.

Emelonye, has been described as one of the new generation of Nigerian film directors taking the magic of ‘Nollywood’ to the wider world. ‘With his multi-disciplinary approach to filmmaking, his relentless creative drive and an uncanny sense of artistic style, Emelonye has also marked himself out as one of UK’s contemporary directors.’ He was at the final stages of being enrolled as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales when he abandoned legal practice to pursue his first love: film. However, he is said to ‘bring his stature as a lawyer and the attendant pragmatism to the chaotic world of film and productions.’

Emelonye’s debut, The Mirror Boy has grossed over N15million at Nigerian cinemas and is being published as a novel. He lives in Notting Hill, London with his wife, Amaka and their two children, D’Kachy and D’Richy.

Efforts to reach DADA Books publishers have failed.