East West Love Brings a Lagos–Mombasa Romcom to Cinemas

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Nollywood has paired Lagos with London, Accra and Johannesburg many times. East West Love takes it somewhere newer: the Kenyan coast. The Kenyan-Nigerian romantic comedy opened in cinemas across Nigeria on Friday, October 9, 2026, distributed by Nile Entertainment. The film is directed by Tanzanian filmmaker Seko Shamte and runs about 85 minutes. It is set mostly in Mombasa, with some scenes shot in Lagos. The story Sunshine Rosman plays Tito, a self-made entrepreneur based in Lagos. She plans a surprise trip to Kenya to see Chude, played by Efa Iwara, who is both her lover and her business partner and who has been acting distant. She arrives to find him with another woman. What WhatKeptMeUp describes as a girls' getaway, an escape from heartbreak, becomes a journey of healing. In Mombasa, Tito meets Juma, a wealthy Kenyan heir played by Brian Abajah. The film then asks whether a new romance can survive when trust has already been broken. Some of the charm comes from small cultural crossovers. NaijaSabi points to a scene in which Tito tries kaimati, which a WhatKeptMeUp review described as the East African version of puff-puff. Key facts Director: Seko Shamte Cast: Sunshine Rosman (Tito), Brian Abajah (Juma), Efa Iwara (Chude), Elma Mbadiwe, Emmanuel Mugo Producers: Dolapo 'LowlaDee' Adeleke and Folashayo Oke Sobo Runtime: about 85 minutes World premiere: May 6, 2026, NollywoodWeek Film Festival, Paris Nigerian release: October 9, 2026, via Nile Entertainment The people behind it Shamte's earlier film Binti became the first Tanzanian title to stream on Netflix, according to Sinema Focus as cited by NaijaSabi. She founded the production company Alkemist Media in 2008. The producers are Dolapo Adeleke, who is credited on Just in Time , and Folashayo Oke Sobo, credited on Princess on a Hill . Rosman, who carries the film as its heartbroken lead, is a Nigerian actress and producer whose earlier credits include To Kill a Monkey . WhatKeptMeUp notes that this is another cross-country romance for Iwara. What the critics said East West Love had its world premiere on May 6 as the opening film of the 13th NollywoodWeek Film Festival in Paris. The early festival reviews were not kind. Sinema Focus called it a sweet romcom stretched too thin, saying it never fully merges its Lagos and Mombasa worlds and reduces its love triangle to a simple East-versus-West contest. It was warmer about Rosman's screen presence and the way Mombasa's light is shot. WhatKeptMeUp's reviewer was harsher, finding the story unoriginal and the performances unstable, though both reviews praised the cast's looks and the setting. As NaijaSabi points out, these are two festival reviews, and audiences in Nigerian cinemas may react differently. Part of a packed October for Nile The film is one of five titles on Nile Entertainment's October slate. The two-year-old distributor, led by Moses Babatope, opened the month with Agbara Nla: The Return , which went on to post a strong box office run . It followed with the documentary MKO on October 2. Still to come are the alternate-history drama A Land Apart on October 23, starring Richard Mofe-Damijo , and Ifeoma Chukwuogo's AFRIFF winner Phoenix Fury on October 30. WhatKeptMeUp says the slate shows how distributors are balancing established audience favourites with riskier, filmmaker-driven projects, and how much distributors decide what reaches the big screen. From Paris to Lagos The film's route to Nigerian screens began in France. NollywoodWeek's 13th edition, held under the theme "Voyage", chose it as its opening film, a fitting pick for a story about a trip that changes a life. Shamte already had a history with the festival: Binti also played NollywoodWeek, in 2021. Rosman has also been credited with the role of Amara in Lunch Time Heroes , while Sinema Focus lists Married to Work among Abajah's earlier credits. For a Kenyan-Nigerian co-production, the casting itself is the point: a Nigerian lead and a Kenyan co-star sharing the screen in a genre both industries know well. What's next East West Love is a theatrical release only for now. No streaming platform or home-viewing date has been announced. Showtimes and ticket prices are on individual cinema websites and apps. For more Nigerian film coverage, see our movies hub . Sources: WhatKeptMeUp | NaijaSabi