At the British Music Embassy showcase at South By Southwest, London artist Skepta screened his new short film Tribal Mark.

This is Skepta’s directorial debut through his production company 1PLUS1. It tells the story of a Nigerian immigrant arriving in London, navigating the difficulties in a foreign country, and ultimately getting dragged into the world of crime.

Tribal Mark is set as a prequel of a black secret service character. In a Q&A after the screening, Skepta lays out his grander plans. “First, we wanted to do a film, then a series and then we decided to do a short to get started,” he explains. “I feel like when we do the film, it’ll be an action film, a spy film.”

The film is a benchmark to highlight the origin narrative of how the character developed. “We wanted to do a short to show the emotion, and mental health, and the trauma issues behind him [Tribal Mark], and why he’s so coldhearted and such a precise killer in the future? To put that dissociation and paranoia into the character as a prequel.”

Skepta delves deeper in to the look of Mark and why that’s so important to his history. “Sometimes it’s for beauty, sometimes it’s a medical thing because it gets into the blood quicker, there’s many different reasons, Skepta comments on the protagonist’s facial scars. “Tribal marks is a serious thing in Nigeria.”

As with every immigrant’s story, food is a major ingredient and is prominent in the short. “That’s why we had the bird shot views of the food because the relationship to food as an immigrant is serious,” Skepta deciphers. “If I ever go around the world on my travels, and I get to a plate of egusi, to me, that’s crazy.“

@thespoilerapp Trailer for Skepta’s film “Tribal Mark” coming out this month! #skepta #tribalmark #movie #newmovie #filmlovers #drama #fyp #viral ♬ original sound - Spoiler Talk