Tribe 85 Production presents Adore Akande (Isoken), Joseph Benjamin (Osaze), Marc Rhys (Kevin), Lydia Forson (Kukua) Tina Mba (Isoken’s Mother), Patrick Doyle (Isoken’s Father), Bolande Olukanni (Remi). Screenplay/Director, Jadesola Osiberu, Director of Photography, Kunle ‘Nodash’ Adejuyigbe; Editors, Kunle ‘Nodash’ Adejuyigbe, Harry John; Executive Producer, Jide Bello, Morenike Okupe, Joko Okupe, Oba Adewale Osiberu, Dr. Yemi Ogunbiyi. © 2017
‘Isoken’ in Yoruba means, contented with destiny. Isoken is a thirty-four on to thirty-five years old woman bombarded about marriage during her younger sister’s wedding. The mother of Isoken is Tina Mba, who was the mother of Stella in The Bridge. You remember in The Bridge, and she refers to Oba as a Yoruba palm oil eaters. And the aunts and cousins are all up to her alley to get married. Her headgear at the wedding, offenses Ye-Isoken, and comments that Isoken looks like a market woman. She is weird, they presume. Can you imagine, Ye-Isoken assumes her a gay, to the surprise of everyone. She does not care. Her life goes on, on the freeway of destiny-fate.
Isoken’s parents introduce her to Osaze (Joseph Benjamin), at her sister’s wedding, and afterward, have a date with him. Osaze is every potential bride’s dream. Tall, prosperous, and promising. All family members’ expectations are high for her to have got a gorgeous promising man like Osaze she can marry. At the wedding, they both dance to the highlife song, ‘Mammy Water.’ Isoken is not quite overwhelmed with this new relationship, especially when in a wedding preparation with Osaz, her mother seems controlling, and Osaze keeps mute. Still, she is gradually warming up to the occasion, to Osaze.
She is at the laundromat, packing her clothes on the table one day, when a white guy, Kevin (Marc Rhys), walks up to her and gives her a towel. In the middle of the wrapped towel is her pink underwear, she had left in the dryer. It was embarrassing to her, and she walks outside the mart. Once outside, she gets on the phone with her friend, talking about the embarrassing moment, unbeknownst to her that Kevin is right behind her when she talks about the “cute white boy.” More embarrassment follows. A day or two after, the same Kevin walks into her office, asking about a particular appointment for a meeting. Kevin introduces himself, referencing the pink underwear. In the end, Kevin and Isoken formally present themselves, exchange names, and shake hands on it. Kevin seemingly in love, already.
So far, Isoken now has two contestants to her heart. There’s Osaze, successful, ambitious, handsome, and a great kisser, which Isoken could mark up all as good, especially last one as a check, check. Check. But there is the white boy, Kevin, with whom she can be herself; no need for her pretending to be someone else, no glam, and no need “repackaging.” Comparatively, Osaze takes her yachting, Kevin takes her in Okada across Lagos, and they eat Akara on the street of Lagos; with Osaze, they drink name-brand wine in upscale bars and night clubs-sophisticated lifestyles. Kevin takes her swimming, takes her in the heart of Lagos, rub shoulders with ordinary folks, and to museums-simplicity of life.
There’s a followup relationship between Isoken and the white boy, Kevin. He comes home to her one evening, and they both had a ball. It’s like a job interview for Kevin, Isoken weighs him in, and they weigh each other and found out of what stuff they are each made. Woman’s sixth sense. She knows so when at Isoken’s thirty-fifth birthday, Kevin appears there with a gift. And in that scene, Osaze is on his knees proposing to Isoken, with a wedding engagement ring. God, you can see in Kevin’s face, his disappointment, and when he has the least chance to have privacy with Isoken, he tells her, from the bottom of his mind, “Don’t marry him. Don’t, because I love you. I know you love me, too, so choose us.”
Isoken has her head on her father’s shoulder in tears to help her in her dilemma between Osaze and Kevin. The father advises her wisely to make the best decisions she sees fit. So it was no surprise when on the eve of her wedding to Osaze, Isoken calls him upstairs, and both alone returns his engagement ring. She goes with her instinct to marry Kevin, because, she presumes she would have been miserable with Osaze. In Kevin, she finds eternal love. You can see the joy on the family’s face dancing around Ye-Isoken and Kevin at the wedding, and everybody awash with confetti. No wahala!
The most beautiful monologue in this movie is, the evening Kevin visits Isoken, and she inadvertently pours her heart to him:
Isoken: “My mother, she doesn’t care what woman accomplishes, she could find a cure for world hunger, even cancer, and still wouldn’t matter unless she were able to bag herself a husband and pop out some babies…I remember when I was in university, we had a friend, she got married right out of university and then had a child shortly after. While we were clubbing and having boyfriends, she was at home changing a diaper. Before you know, it just hits me, at 34, I was the only single woman at your school reunion. It is like one minute, you are a star student, and then the next minute, you feel like you failed at life exam,” she says in near-tears.
The last line in this monologue reminds me of Majid’s speech in Bursting Out. Both rhetorics are so close to home; I have tears welling up with the experience. There are not so many regrets than being a victim of destiny, which you have no way around. It is your fate! My fate! Our fates! I’m glad as hell, when Kevin holds Isoken’s hand at the door, and says, “I just want to say, you have nothing about to worry. You are an incredibly beautiful woman. You will find love in your own time.” And she says, “I hope so.” Isoken, Isoken! Time. Destiny, Destiny! If traditional names our parents give their children in Africa have any essence, there is none better than our character in Isoken.
Much of the excellent attributes of Isoken goes to the behind the camera crew. I hardly give credit to editors in my review, which is a fault for which I can’t give a reason. Still, here in Isoken, the editor, director, and cinematographer put sheer magic in the production. There are remarkable rhythms and tempo in the scenes Osaze takes Isoken out of her apartment on the boat ride, juxtaposing those shots with Kevin taking her on the town as well. The editor demonstrates the competitiveness of the two suitors, Kevin and Osaze, over Isoken. It is of no little wonder, Isoken’s destiny becomes hurried by the tempo of the film, as she approaches her thirty-fifth birthday.
Note: Mende tribe in Liberia and Sierra Leone call mothers, ‘YE’ as in Ye-Isoken, meaning mother of Isoken. Can you imagine?