On the edge of Lagos, where the city meets the Atlantic, Water, Get Enemy? follows a community of young surfers who have grown up around the waters of Tarkwa Bay. Directed by Daniel Obasi, the short film looks beyond surfing as a sport to explore the relationships, routines and sense of freedom that have formed around it.
Through intimate testimonies and images moving between the ocean and the city beyond it, the film presents Tarkwa Bay as both an escape from the pressures of Lagos and a space for self-expression, friendship and belonging. For its surfers, the water is not simply somewhere to ride waves, but a place where an alternative way of living together has taken shape.
C41 spoke with Obasi about documenting this community, challenging established representations of surf culture, and the role of the ocean in shaping a different image of contemporary Lagos.
Gaia V. Marraffa: Surf culture has long been framed through a predominantly Eurocentric, Californian imaginary. Where does Water, Get Enemy? sit within your wider visual practice of repositioning West Africa as a centre of contemporary, hedonistic subcultures?
Daniel Obasi: Surf culture is often seen through a Western lens. With Water, Get Enemy?, I wanted to centre West Africa and show Lagos as a place with its own youth culture, freedom and pleasure.
GVM: Throughout the film, low-angle shots turn the young surfers into almost statuesque silhouettes against the skies of Tarkwa Bay. How did you develop this visual language, and what interested you in the relationship between their physicality, style and the particular grace of this community?
DO: I was drawn to their physicality and the way they move through the water. The low angles give them presence and scale while keeping their individuality and style visible.
GVM: Through the voice-overs, the ocean emerges as more than a playground: it becomes a place to decompress, away from the anxiety and depression that can accompany life in Lagos. What does the act of reclaiming mental wellbeing through nature mean to you, both personally and politically?
DO: For me, the ocean represents release. It offers a space away from Lagos’s noise and pressure, where you can reconnect with yourself, nature and others.
GVM: Some of the surfers speak about their families’ disapproval of the sport, while describing surfing itself as an essential expression of personal freedom. Do you see Lagos’s younger generation redefining ideas of priority, passion and self-fulfilment in relation to more traditional expectations?
DO: I think so. There’s a generation questioning what they’ve been told their lives should look like and making space for genuine happiness and fulfilment.
GVM: The film celebrates a remarkably close-knit collective, formed in and around the water. Against the intensity and complexity of Lagos, how important was it for you to portray the ocean as a place where intimacy, community and chosen families can take shape?
DO: That community was central to the film. I wanted the water to feel like a meeting point—a place where people could connect, build relationships and create a sense of family beyond traditional structures.
GVM: Beyond the waves, we catch glimpses of Lagos’s modern skyline and industrial coastline. How did you approach the visual and spatial tension between the creative isolation of Tarkwa Bay and the metropolis that surrounds it?
DO: I wanted that contrast to feel natural. Tarkwa Bay seems removed from Lagos, but the city is always visible in the distance. That tension became part of the film’s visual language.
GVM: Water, Get Enemy? captures a particular feeling of freedom and belonging. Do you see the film as a self-contained chapter in your exploration of youth identity in Lagos, or as part of a wider cinematic language you want to continue developing?
DO: It’s part of a wider exploration. I’m interested in young people, identity, freedom and the ways Lagos shapes how we see ourselves. I’d like to keep developing those ideas through film.