Produced by Access Media I Factory Live, Turning Point Media for Iroko, Iroko Partners, presents, Dr. Manuel (John Dumelo), Esaba Jomo (Joselyn Dumas), Mark Jomo (Jon Germain) Cynthia (Irene Asante) Bianca (Beverly Afaglo), Mr. Jomo (Kofi Adjarolo). Director, story, screenplay, Director, Leila Djansi; Director of Photography, Aaron Wong. (C) 2014.
A Northern Affair was intended, to be a period movie. To wit: the old land rover jeep reminds us of colonial Africa and the soundtrack, ‘Bottom Belleh.’ I was knee-high when the song came out on vinyl records and was played on the gramophone, and we danced to it for pennies. These two, over fifty years old characteristics are indicative of a period long gone. And this is not a condemnation, it suits more the overall pastoral and photography, which in pastel gives the picture (movie) a period look. And what of the old train snaking its way into the station, as it puffs out the thick locomotive smoke?
Dr. Manuel (John Dumelo) reluctantly welcomes an expectant nurse, Esaba Jomo (Joslyn Dumas) who he assumes should have been someone else. They start the working relationship on an odd footing. He assumes Esaba is in the wrong assignment and couldn’t measure up to the rigors of rural life especially in a village far-flung from civilization. Esaba feels slighted by Dr. Manuel for the wrong assumption of her capability.
When both doctor and nurse get stranded on a feeder-road, they get to know each other: Dr. Manuel had lost his wife to leukemia two years ago; nurse too. Esaba had lost her parents at the age of fifteen and was raised by Aunty June (Gifty Temeng). Both have tragic pasts, so they consoled each other by getting off the high horses. They become cordial working mates, at least temporary.
Sleeping in a hut by the roadside, both cuddled up to each other does something to their professional relationship. After a romantic night, one morning they are awoken by a woman, Bianca (Beverly Afaglo) who claims to have a baby boy for Dr. Manuel, that she was his wife. As Dr. Manuel is embarrassed, so Esaba is disappointed and angry. However, the lonesome environment gets Esaba to patch up her relationship with Dr. Manuel, in case the skeleton in her closet is let out. Before long, a man, Mark Jomo (Jon Germain) who claims Esaba, his wife comes to claim her and to take her back to the city with him.
The reason Esaba had taken this Northern assignment was to get away from an abusive prenuptial marriage she had gotten into but couldn’t find a way out unless she coughs out one hundred thousand dollars. Mark abuses Esaba every day and she contemplates series of ways to get rid of her estranged husband; murder him; yell, “rape,” from their bedroom in the middle of the night; and includes suicide for herself. In fact, she attempts suicide, for which Mark, not thankful for avoiding such tragedy for his wife, when caught with tumbler to her mouth, gives Esaba a slap in the jaw, then smashes the glass on the floor.
Mark, “Don’t you ever try to blackmail me!” he howled like a bulldog.
In the North, Dr. Manuel is miserable for the absence of Esaba. One day, Esaba couldn’t stand the absence of her boyfriend Dr. Manuel, and she skips town to come to look for him. Again, Mark catches her at Dr. Manuel’s bungalow and jumps her, but Dr. Manuel jumps him in time and hands him over to the police. In the end, the court releases Esaba from the marriage and she retains the mansion she and Mark owned.
There’s nothing spectacular about this romantic story. Matter of fact, the story plot is predictable and that takes little juice out of it. And, to the eye of a critic, when a writer puts vulnerable male and female leads in a strange environment, for example, in a two-bedroom bungalow, or a car breakdown in the middle of nowhere, no matter how antagonistic they prove to be at first, their relationship is bound to improve with the development of the storyline. We expect that. Here’s what happens between the two strange characters, stranded on the side of the road and they are about to sleep there, all alone, in the wild, in the Northern cold air, with a little sheet to cover them both. See how Dr. Manuel gropes her.
Dr. Manuel, “Have you ever watched a person die?”
Esaba, “My parents died when I was fifteen…Who did you lose?”
Dr. Manuel, “My wife…Five years ago.”
“How did she die?”
“Leukemia.”
“I’m sorry.”
We expect that. After this exchange and the overnight cuddling, Esaba proclaims, “you are a very good company.”
Dr. Manuel, “Thanks for coming here…. No boyfriend, no candlelight…”
They shake hands. Dr. Manuel, “Welcome to Utah.”
Not too fast. Dr. Manuel is finding it hard to get past the loss of his wife, and he’s even afraid to get involved again, in case, the same ill luck follows him, hence, he flings his arm away from Esaba when she touches it. But at the same time, you can see the pain of desire on his face even as he retreats from her, and says, “I want you to leave.”
Esaba, “I want you to look me in the eye and tell me, you want me to leave.”
Dr. Manuel, “I want you to leave,” he says half-heartedly. As she turns to leave, Dr. Manuel pulls her back and gives her a kiss. Dr. Manuel is passive, yet sensitive with a taint of vulnerability that could be seen only in men who have lost a loved one. He still carries the thought of his dead wife with him.
He’s not alone though. Esaba has a past that she’s running away from and do not want innocent Dr. Manuel implicated and she’s therefore hesitant to plunge into a new relationship, even as her Aunty June could warn her about getting into a new relationship so soon after Mark. Poor girl. She has been swept off her feet, by a rugged, and barrel-chested young doctor, called Dr. Manuel Quagraine, in a faraway yonder land, in the backwoods of civilization in the North.
Mark Jomo won’t take the affront lying down. He has this no-nonsense deadpan look on his face that could keep Esaba away from his gaze. Mark’s father, Mr. Jomo (Kofi Adjorolo), seeing how desperate and bully his son is, warns Esaba to, “be careful.” Mark stands up to a wife he calls his own, who has repeatedly run from him and now finds her up in the country at the back house of D. Manuel’s bungalow. A reviewer commented on the acting of Jon Germaine as poor. I don’t think so. I put him down as a static character in the story. From his entry in the play and to the lawyer’s office when we last see him, we never see him smile. He never changes a bit. He plays his role well and delivers naturally. Matter of fact, I uncannily discovered an interesting and novel angle of this story from his standpoint. He presents a counterpoint to the romantic rendezvous, Esaba has with Dr. Manuel: Dr Manuel wants Esaba to leave. Jon Jomo doesn’t want Esaba to leave.
Mark, “What’s the problem anyway, you have all you need.”
Esaba, “I need a divorce…You control me…Can’t go anywhere.”
“I am your life.”
“Mark, you’re not my life.”
Mark slaps Esaba.
Esaba, “Take it out on me, take out all your insecurities on me. Mark, you are nothing but fluff and froth!”
Both the leads in A Northern Affair have lots of projects in their pasts, though not much together in a leading role in films. Joslyn Dumas, here in this movie, would have to retain the mansion. She wouldn’t have to, in Shirley Frimpong-Manso’s film, Potato Potahto (2017), when she shares the same abode with her divorced husband, Adjety Anang. He has two bedrooms and half the kitchen and half the lawn. A hilarious movie to watch. A Northern Affair flies precariously on propane gas but the engine landed safely without exploding.
The outstanding feature of this movie is its pastoral characteristic. It’s a reminiscence of colonial Africa when Dispensers occasionally visited the villages and on a day in a week, the mothers and all ailing villagers would gather in a hut, awaiting the arrival of the ‘Dresser,’ as we used to call them. Little Manuel reminds me of my secondary schoolmate who was an outside child of a Dispenser who used to visit our village, every Wednesday.
The dialogue in A Northern Affair is not hurried but relaxed, contextual, and quaint. The lighting is low-key as like emanating from natural sources, and that goes to adds to the dramatic effectiveness of the project.
A critic cannot correctly assess the work of an artist based on a single project, though I already love what I view here. I will comment lightly on either the writing, directorial style based on this first movie I have ever come across. I believe she must be a serious contender in African movie production. No wonder she won an accolade at the 10th African Movie Awards for Best Production Design category for A Northern Affair.