African Movie Review

 True Story ~ 2009
Story, Screenplay and Direction

 – Tchidi Chikere

Starring:
Ini Edo – Oyoo
Nkem Owoh – Papi
Chinelo Oloh – Igbemma
Gaddiel Onwudiwe – Obiako
Pat Asore – Ezinnne
Esther Ugwu – Woman
Ijeh Myke – Ojoto
Daniella Chioma Okeke – Alice
Danaliton Onyia – Biker man
Ifeanyi Ikechukwu – Agodi

Themes:
Spirits
Pregnancy
Dehumanisation of house help

My Rating – 55%

Oyoo is Papi’s pregnant wife who is forever moaning. Papi is the downtrodden husband who despite his best efforts cannot seem to make his over emotional and fussy wife happy. He puts up with her whims because she is pregnant but her whimsical behaviour soon takes a toll on him and very soon he finds happiness outside of his marital home. Happiness comes in the form of Igbemma, a house girl that he meets in the bush while looking for locusts to eat for Oyoo. Their meetings become regular and Papi stops pandering to his wife’s every whim.

*************SPOILERS*************

I actually found Ini’s character Oyoo quite annoying. She was supposed to be a nagging wife, but the behaviour was beyond nagging. This was something else. She would cry that he didn’t wake her up for the sunset, request that he make a special dish, and then after he’d made it want something else instead. I would not call that nagging but mental instability. In the first scene we see her waking up Papi in the middle of the night with her incessant crying. When he asks what is wrong she tells him in a whiny voice,

“I want to eat mixed pepper soup and yam”

As soon as Papi meets Igbemma in the bush he stops pandering to Oyoo’s every whim and there is a role reversal in that she starts catering to him in the way that he was to her. Harmony lasts barely a day before Oyoo starts her whining and crying over a dream she has, and so this back and forth between Oyoo and Papi continues with Oyoo being fine one minute and then whining and crying the next.

For me Igbemma’s death should have been close to the end of the movie. I mean after she died I had no more interest in watching the movie. I did not find the “haunting” scenes particularly interesting, sad or funny. It was all just a bit underwhelming. I did not see any chemistry between Nkem and Ini, and just slight chemistry with Nkem and Chinelo. Considering the fact that he fell in love with her I would have expected to see more chemistry.

I thought that the concept was good to a degree. We learn something a human’s need to be loved and wanted. Igbemma and Papi find each other at the right time when they are both in need. On the surface the two appear to be mismatched. Igbemma is the free spirit who gets joy from the simple act of gazing into the sky and from dancing in the fields and letting the spirits move her. These things are strange to Papi but with her help he soon begins to derive joy and look forward to these simple things too. Her life as a house help where she is beaten and humiliated on a daily basis becomes pleasurable in that she is able to share these things with Papi and likewise his life too changes as he is able to escape the burden that is his wife and feel carefree, if only temporarily.
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Technically I could not fault this movie. There was nothing wrong with it that I could put my finger on, ooops! Except the sound; that was pretty awful like someone walking in front of a speaker…  but I just found it booooooring *yawn.* If the movie had stopped at any point in the first part (you know how these CD malfunctions go down? LOL) I would not have particularly cared to find out what happened. I would have happily ejected the CD and not even tried wiping it to attempt playing it again. The movie just did not evoke any emotion or reaction in me, be in laughter, sadness, surprise, horror… Just nothing.

Only towards the end of the movie did I really sit up and pay attention. This was where Papi is going to lay Igbemma to rest in her village. I enjoyed Papi’s interaction with Alice played by Damiella Chioma Okeke. It was very playful and they seemed very comfortable with each other. Those last scenes were the best bits of the whole movie. I would recommend this for people who like very slooooooooow village movies. For everyone else… give it a miss.

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