We have a chance with Nollywood, By Seun Onigbinde
I am a big fan of Nollywood. You will mostly catch me looking for recommendations for good ones. I always feel like my work is hard enough. Let me just find something to really relax and not just imagine the unbelievable. That’s why I stick to true stories in Hollywood like Marshall or Lincoln and not sci-fi and a couple of people racing. The exception is James Bond 007.
Many times, I leave my desk in Yaba and walk in Ozone to catch Nigerian movies for two hours. A lot of times, I have been disappointed. Let me not lie but we have bright spots too.
Recently, we have had three good Yoruba movies – Agesinkole, Anikulapo and Elesin Oba. Maybe I have given out my rating in this order already but I really love the dialogue in Agesinkole and how the story was built. I never believed Femi Adebayo’s mastery of poetic Yoruba reached those stratospheric levels. His fight with Ibrahim Chatta was epic. The storyline, suspense build-up and ending were great. It made a great point on landing. Excellent.
I loved Anikulapo because not everytime you go hard, stay soft. Sometimes, relax your mind and enjoy fiction. It’s also interesting that the whole piece was from Ifa corpus, opening up a whole vista of our stories. Too many things to unpack as Yoruba would usually say, “ore pé, asiwèrè gbàgbé” – a distant kindness is usually forgotten by a fool.
Saro lost focus as he did since he stepped into Oyo town, switching alliances as convenient. A lot of heavyweights were also brought in for this. I am a fan of this. We don’t need to hear some of the glorious acts of yore when they die. Please give them flowers in modern era too. A lot of things were missing in research like a king watching his dead son or use of costume. But, give this its flowers; it was excellent work.
I really liked Ẹlẹsin Ọba but the character development wasn’t good enough. Possibly, the burden of metamorphosis of a play into a movie. It’s never that easy but it was a good account. It was blended with fiction and I felt certain things were intentional like the seamless dialogue between district officer and Elesin Oba. I like Shaffy Bello. Amazing pace and dialogue.
WS is a great writer. Elesin has all the chances in the world to fulfil honour especially when the King’s dog was beheaded. However, he prevaricated, talked up his ultimate commitment like he doubted in his mind. I think the “gods” won’t accept such wavering. It packs a lot of lessons as mentioned by Olumide Adeleye . A lot of people in Nigeria got outsized benefits from this nation but at the right moment, they were never willing to sacrifice for it. Awọn nu, Ọlọrun nu.
It’s hard to make movies out of books. I recently read “Arrow of God” and I won’t wish someone make a mess of it but those that try deserve the commendation.
Please also watch “Brotherhood”. I did everything possible to see it in my recent period in Nigeria. Another Yoruba actor, Ronke Oshodi was immense at every point.
Nollywood is advancing and this is one area that’s blooming like our music. Long may it continue. As discussed with someone recently, I hope our fashion is next. Our arts should dominate the world. It’s the part of our GDP that needs to grow and jobs can be accelerated. I was once interviewed by a couple of young people, I counted 9 people in the room doing different things. This is how we can change the paradigm. Not everytime, agriculture, industry and oil. We have a chance with this.
-Onigbinde, is the founder of Budgit, a CivicTech organisation promoting public sector transparency and accountability
