By Ali Baylay

Franco Films. Producer: Igboanago Chinedu Nathaniel. Director: Tchidi Chikere. Associate Producer: Tchidi Chikere. Executive Producer: Igboanago Chinedu Nathaniel.

Cast: Ini Edo, Tonto Dikeh, Mike Ezuruonye , Ifeanyi Ikechukwu.

Anyone who has ever read Thomas Hardy’s Return of the Native would be reminded of the book at a first glance of the title of this movie, Native Son. And come to watch the Native Son, the story plot is so akin to the classic, Return of the Native, that you’ll predict the beginning, middle and the end of Native Son.

Native Son however do not have the tangled love drama  of Clym Yeobright , Eustacia, Thomason, and Wildeve in Return of the Native, and in fact there is no such tragedy as befalls Thomas Hardy’s characters.

Native Son unfolds the same way Return of the Native starts, with a wagon rolling into town with Thomasin Yeobright. In Native Son, a van boarded by an older man and a young beau, Nerissa (Tonto Dikeh) slowly taxis into a village, and two native boys are playing football in the street, oblivious of the van. In another scene Nerissa, happens on a dwell between the same native boys umpired by a bigger native son, Igwe (Mike Ezuruonye). Nerissa is flabbergasted, shocked but on the other hand, there is an unspeakable exchange of interest between her and Igwe. Igwe’s would-be village girl Tochukwu (Ini Edo) happens upon the scene.

Nerissa introduces herself as a city girl by taking out a pack of cigarette, holds one to her lips, fires it up and pulls one big puff, turns around and leaves. All at present are askance, and particularly Tochukwu, envious and jealous. If Tochukwu thinks she’s the only rooster in this rural community, she’s got to compete with an urbanite over Igwe.

The serenity of the village is broken from this point on and the pastoral story is put into a speedway mode. A chance meet by Igwe and Nerissa on a secluded country road and, Igwe’s subsequent ride in Nerissa’s van to Igwe’s house, and Tochukwu’s chance arrival upon Igwe getting out of the van results in a brawl, that sets Igwe’s hut ablaze as both girls are locked in wrestling. This is the only tragedy in this film comparable to the snake bite and drowning of Hardy’s characters.

The village court authorised both Nerissa and Tochukwu to build back the hut and after which Nerissa leaves the village back for the city, broken hearted. Nerissa and Igwe however missed each other and their paths never crossed again until twelve years later, when Igwe, now educated and married with children sitting behind his office desk lets his secretary usher in a waiting business officer who turns out to be Nerissa.

I hate to say this, this movie is not a serious production.  Mike Ezuruonye’s part-one (Pidgin English) delivery is not quite convincing and I even keep thinking why an award winner like Mike could have taken part in this project. We all do pay bills, but with thirty or more films under ones belt, it is time we start filtering through the myriads of projects that showed up on our desks.  Again most supporting actors and actresses only say their lines and never actually deliver. 

The whole idea of producing a story akin to a classic is ruined by one single oversight or negligence: What in the world, a purple dot doing in the frame (lens) of every shot in this 150 minites film? The  movie has this annoying purple dot  following the actors wherever they go. One thing comes to mind that either some cinematographer was in training  or, Nollywood is not paying attention to dailies, or at best they do not really care what the end product turns out to be. This production isn’t an award winning  one.

• By Ali Baylay

Strength of Faith: Producer: Sunshine Movies Limited, Director: Ikechukwa Onyeka. Cast: Van Vicker, Uche Jombo, Tonto Dikeh.

Strength to Strength: Producer: Solomon Apete, Director: Ugezu J. Ugezu, Prod. Mgm: Ifeanyi Udoku, Exec. Prod: Ezenwa Collins Chinedu. Cast: Patience Ozorkwo, Mike Ezuruonye, Mercy Johnson, Tonto Dike.

I do not know how these two identical title of movies ended up on my desk but for some reason they were there, and I kept looking away because the titles in themselves are not eye catching or meaningful. However, I got curious at one point, and my critical mind forced me to watch them, simultaneously.

One thing about Strength of Faith and Strength to Strength production processes don’t sit well with me. I don’t know about you, but for me  the titles are too close for comfort. I can’t imagine two seperate productions would have so close a title and so close a theme. It seems Nollywood is running short of story ideas and titles.

If I could work up some similarity traits between the two movies, both are produced in 2008 and marketed in America. Strength of Faith, by Black Star Entertainment , 3832 White Plains Road, Bronx, New York 10467; Strength to Strength, by Executive Image African Movies, 2811 White Plains Road, Bronx, New York 10467. Both these companies live next door to each other.

The casts are either compromised or borrowed from one set to another. The notorious mother-in-law of Nick ( Mike Ezuruonye) in Strength to Strength, commonly known in the film as Nick’s mom (Camilla Mgbrekpe), is also Mama(Camela Mberekpe)  who plays the evil mother of Van Vicker in Strength of Faith. Then enters Tonto Dike, (Chekwube) in Strength of Faith, and (Angela) in Strength to Strength, and in both films she plays the tragic character who ends dead before the end credits roll. Oh, one more thing about these two flicks that stand out as similar is, they both explore marriage themes in reference to in-laws: The aggrandizing mother (Patience Ozokwor) of Jane (Mercy Johnson) in (Strength to Strength) who would like to sell Jane to the highest bidder, versus Nick’s Mom (Camilla Mgbereka) who could stop at nothing but to get her son a woman who would give her a grandchild. In Stregth of Faith, the mother-in-law bewitches Chekwube for the mere heck of the fact that she hates her.

The only difference found between the two movies is that while one explores (Strength to Strength), the biblical plot of Jacob marrying Rachel and her sister Leah, but deviates and takes on a plot curve from there, ending the story with the death of the younger sister, Angela (Tonto Dike) in labor; In  the use of  of in the title of Strength of Faith, I find a difference, and poetic justice in the story: Devil worshipping works, as equally as belief in the holy ghost’s fire depending on the strength of faith like we find in both factions responsible for the death of Chekwube (Tonto Dike) and Mama (Camela Mberekpe), respectively.

The reason why Hollywood uses working titles during production of a movie is, by the time of premier their movie must have been christened a title unique to it and to it alone. In today’s age of  google keywording, your movie with a similar title to the production next door,  in the same market, can easily get lost in the laybrinth. Are we getting short of titles in Nollywood?

By Ali Baylay

The Untold Truth explores a family situation we all have either witnessed or have been part of. I witnessed such situation growing up in my home town: A rich and powerful man in my quarter had an only girl in all girls dormitory, but she had the habit of stealing anything from her fellow girls: panties, shoes, dresses or anything she lays her hands on in seclusion, and she did this just for the heck of it. My neighbor’s girl continued this habit  and was eventually expelled from the all girls school and thus brought home shame to her parents. In a parallel circumstance as in The Untold Story, the rich man’s sister who couldn’t bear an issue of her own was blamed for the unfortunate situation.

Samuel Okafor’s production of The Untold Truth is a story of parental dilemma and shame. Chief Okenwa’s (Kofi Adjorlolo) son suddenly arrives in a cab from Canada with not a single luggage. Though this manner of arrival doesn’t sit well with either the mother, Lolo (Patience Ozokwo) or the sister, Nkiru (Mercy Johnson) the family swallow it all and sit down and wait until the thieving habits of Peter (Francis Duru) begins to surface.

From then on, Peter’s thieving habits becomes frequent and so the family continue to be embarrassed. He steals the jeans of a brother of a girl he wants to marry, steals the cellphone of his sister’s boyfriend, and shoplifts a store when he’s in the company of his sister. Meanwhile, the churches are been consulted and each gives their opinion and help to wade this curse, and yet, Peter’s thieving habit persists, to the utter embarrassment of all in the family even to the point of himself breaking up when he steals his sister’s boyfriend’s cellphone. By contrivance, the priest points the brother of the chief to be the perpetrator of the curse, as he showers him in the blessed pool.

The line up of actors and their acting make this story a memorable one. Kofi Adjorolo’s character in this heavy drama is one of a father who abandons his household affair in return for politics. Patience Ozokwo has never been so caring in a household as in this film. Mercy Johnson’s acting weaves  the fragile plots of the movie together to make it all the more memorable. Francis Duru’s character carries the burden of this film to the finish line and he does a good job at it.

If the essence of the story as was envisioned by the writer could be what I felt after watching this film, then he really got me. The movie left  me reeling with  pain, shame, sadness and despair for Francis Duru’s character. It evokes a paranoid state of mind of Peter, which shows in his disjointed deliveries, his uncertain gaze, and his sluggish gait. The film could be classified as a painful and depressing experience, that leaves one cold and tired,  especially for the parent sensing either his son or daughter caught  in such a low life behavior.

In considering the manner in which part two of the film ends, the writer didn’t do Peter justice by living him unchanged, and my soft heart follows such memorable character and acting eternally. Well, not every movie has to be  fun, or ends with, ‘happily ever after.’

By Ali Baylay

To put it bluntly, this is a movie that attempts at the inner state of mind of the center character, Sandra (Genevivie Nnaji), but we never get acquainted with her motivation for the kind of rebel without cause behavior of Sandra.

Nwafor Anayo’s For Better or For Worse (2003), starts with Sandra  entering her father’s  living-room-turned-dance-hall, full of partying guests, and with her nose in the air, she weeds unfavorable members from the guests and ask them out. And even as she takes the floor, no one dares join her, until she beckons them to the floor. Here, we are introduced to Sandra as an insolent, cigarette-smoking rich girl who attends a parochial school, in a rundown neighborhood, where she’s hailed as a queen.

She’s heedless to the warnings and threats of both her father and a step-mother she dares not set eyes upon. There’s not a single attribute for the wanton behavior Sandra carries on in this movie, only for the fact that her mother is past, how long, story doesn’t tell,  but raised by her father and his second wife.

Sandra goes from one self-destructive behavior to another. She steals money and other belongings from her father, buys drugs and throws elaborate hotel pool-party, and in a drunken stupor, she hits a child  with her car almost to death. At this point, Sandra seems possessed by a demon, but is rescued from damnation by Michael (Emeka Ike), a boy friend with a humble background. For the sake of Michael’s love, her high wire destructive behavior simmers a little as she accepts constrains placed on her by him, and that takes a hundred and eighty degrees turn in her character.

Sandra and Michael enjoy a short period of relative peace of love until the uncompromising father of her offers Michael an ultimatum that askews the relationship:  Become pilot trainee in the father’s airline company and have a career in exchange for Sandra. Michael accepts career as a pilot  reluctantly, and Sandra is turned down by Michael even as she dogs him all over town.

Michael goes on to become a pilot and Sandra goes abroad to the US for studies. However, a big chunk of Sandra’s love remains in Michael’s heart as he keeps her picture with him  in the cockpit of the plane. Sandra comes back to town from the US with a fiancee, Jonnathan (Clem Ohameze), a four-one-nine don, and happens to run into Michael at a restaurant. There’s a brawl between the two fellas-Michael and Jonathan.

After series of attempts to take Sandra back from the American boy, even to the point that he loses his job with the airline, and crashes his car in a self-suicidal mission, he relents. Sandra and her parents find Jonnathan is fake and tricks him on his last mission to pilfer one hundred thousand dollars from Sandra’s father, by paying him off in counterfeit dollars, as long as he leaves Sandra and never comes back. Sandra goes knocking at Michael’s door for forgiveness, and when Michael couldn’t, she decides to go back to the states to finish her schooling.

For Better or For Worse isn’t about for better  for worse,  because, there isn’t a scene where marital vow is exchanged to validate  title of this movie. It is neither a lesson for overprotective parents, nor lesson for wanton children nor a blueprint for Romeo and Juliet,  but a share 226 minutes of past time .