Lisbon Okafor’s ‘Ten-Cent Daisy’ Is An Ethereal Folktale Movie Tackling Sexual Assault
Folktales in films can either be wonderfully immersive, terrifying – or in poor taste. With storylines open to interpretation, folktales can be twisted and turned by filmmakers to create extra layers of deeper, better meaning, which looks to be the case in Lisbon Okafor’s movie.
Ten-Cent Daisy (A Lost Mermaid Tale), the movie directed by Lisbon Okafor, tells the story of a girl named Daisy (a mermaid), who lived in a small fishing village in the Caribbean. When she was 13 years old, she was assaulted by the local priest, John Patrick, who was later found murdered. Daisy’s mother, Iris, sent Daisy and her sisters Orchid and Violet away to protect them. Iris was imprisoned for the crime. Twelve years later in Berkeley California, the sisters’ relationship has splintered. The oldest, Orchid, receives word that Iris is to be released from prison, and is sick. She knows they must return home to save their mother using Daisy’s healing gifts, but there are several obstacles to overcome, most of all the lust of a close family friend, Mira, to gain control over Daisy.
Lisbon developed the script for the movie with his wife and daughter – who he used to tell the original folktale to when she was 9 years old.
According to him, the story evolved into an allegory of social discrimination and post-colonialism:
“Ten-Cent Daisy has evolved over the last fifteen years. It started when I visited Grenada with my wife in 2001. I learned of a local girl ostracized by her family and community for her “peculiarities.” No one would say what these peculiarities were, except she was different enough to warrant a collective shun from the village.
Her story reminded me of a similar situation in my own village in eastern Nigeria. A young girl with Down syndrome was teased and humiliated as a child out of sheer ignorance regarding her condition. The tendency to treat people we don’t know or understand differently is all too common, and deserves to be exposed again and again in all artistic expressions.
However, my medium of choice, cinema, calls for much more than passion to bring any subject to life. And so my story has evolved over time to encompass my immigrant experience and my greatest passion of all, fatherhood.”
The women’s story is ultimately about confronting pain and telling the stories that have formed us. The movie stars Lauren Michelle (The Dope Soprano) in her first feature film role, as Daisy. Other cast members include Dionne Audain, Ameenah Kaplan, Margaret Kemp, Obinna Okafor, Jamal Ademole, Gordon Greene, Zack Gold, Lavell Hood, Don Williams, and Jon Lindstrom.
Ten-Cent Daisy is salted for a 2018 release, and is currently raising funds for post-production on Kickstarter. Watch the trailer below:
