And as Chief Obioha says in the film’s climactic speech—now finally audible in all its bass-rich glory— “A naghị eji ego egwu egwu.” (We do not use money to play games.)

Most original masters of 90s and early-2000s Igbo films have disintegrated. They were recorded on cheap TDK or Sony VHS tapes, stored in humid Nigerian storage rooms, and have since become unplayable. The fact that the Holy Cross team found three working copies is a miracle.

In 2018, a small, now-legendary digital restoration group operating out of Onitsha—calling themselves the Holy Cross Digital Preservation Initiative (HCDPI)—announced a project to remaster Igbo-language classics. Their first target: Ogaranya .

For years, collectors, digital archivists, and older millennials have whispered a peculiar phrase in online forums and video-CD marketplaces: “Chief Michael Udegbi Ogaranya Holy Cross Repack.” To the uninitiated, this sounds like a cryptic code. To the initiated, it represents a watershed moment in Nollywood restoration and the preservation of a cinematic masterpiece.