Natives FilmWorks, and Jungle FilmWorks, presents Gideon Okeke (Kim Dunkin), Dejumo Lewis (Pa Dunkin), Segun Arinze (Diokpa Okonkwo), Amaka Mgbor (Viki), Matilda Obaseki (Tara). Story Femi Kayode, Pius Gyang, Steve Gukas; Screenplay Ita Hozaife, J.K. Amalou; Producers, Steve Gukas; Executive Producers, Seyi Siwoku; Director of Photography, John Demps, Manuel Lapierre, Herald Beeker; Director, Steve Gukas © 2014
The only similarity between A Place in The Stars and A Place in The Sun (1951) is their titles. Both belief in the elements (Sun/Stars). The 1951 Hollywood production is based solely on a dramatic romance that resulted in a tragedy. George Eastman (Montgomery Cliff), the former bellhop, gets hired in his uncle’s company and quickly rises to the top and a place in high society (sun). He soon gets entangled in a romantic web with Alice Tripp (Sherley Winters), a lower-class factory girl. And a wonderful love experience with Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor), a high society brunette. The romantic affair with the latter sweeps Eastman off his feet. It causes him to lose his mind, leading him to film’s most horrendous cold-blooded Hollywood murders.
Nollywood’s A Place in The Stars takes a different bite at the element. As an infant sitting by a bonfire with his dad. His father tells him that people who were excellent and hardworking on earth, when they die, have a place in God’s heaven and turn into stars. The young Kim wants that place in the stars. He tells his dad he wants a place in the stars. Kim Dunkin grew up with a place in the stars on his mind, and money, lots of it in his eye, and becoming a lawyer and defending people in court was a sure sign for him. He joined the wrong side of morality in his crusade to reach the stars by entering the bad camp.
He has not changed much from the belief in the stars since infancy. And that is where he is different from his father. In a candid conversation with his father, we come to know where father and son stand on moral issues. The old Pa Dunkin (Dujomo Lewis) doesn’t believe in corrupt behavior his son Kim has come to take as part of life. Kim is a lawyer representing in bed with counterfeit drug importer and a foreign mining company that exploits the natural resource of a local district without giving back anything in return. Kim hails from the same locality. His father is on the side of the locals.
Pa Dunkin, “Can’t you excuse yourself on the grounds of conflict of interest?”
Kim, “By law, Rassco is not obliged to do anything for the community. They’ve paid compensation for the land, and the villagers have accepted it. By so accepting, they’ve seceded their rights.”
Pa Dunkin, “You have a point there. But how do you think the community will take your involvement when the lines are finally drawn?”
Kim, “I don’t think it will come to that.”
Pa Dunkin, “I hope so. But this is your community, and these are your people.”
In another instance, Pa Dunkin and his son Kim are at loggerheads.
Pa Dunkin, “Has Simi (Kim’s sister) got a job yet?”
“I’ve asked her to come work with me, but she still insists on working in her field.”
“Simi has asked me to talk to people I know, but I keep telling her that she has got good results to enable her to get a job.”
“Baba, things are way different from how they used to be in your time.”
“Simi can’t get a good job on merit?”
“Baba, it’s not like she’s asking you to break the law. All she’s saying is to put in a good word in some places where it matters. That’s all.
“She cannot get a job on merit, And you want me to prejudice other candidates?”
“Things have not changed so much that she cannot get herself a job.”
“I don’t even know why I bothered. You know I’ve told Simi that she’s just wasting her time. I’ve been on this road with you before. (Beat) Look around you. Look at this threadbare house. Baba, when will you realize that you have taken this crusade too far? Excuse me.”
These are the minds of kids that keep parents awake at night. They keep burning their bridges, breaking the bounds of morality to achieve greatness, and look at the parents’ humilities and soft look at life as weakness. He calls the house where he was born “threadbare.” Kim goes on plundering and getting involved in corrupt practices. His father gets sick and is prescribed the fake drug he has helped bring into the country. His father dies.
Like Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde, Kim had arranged with the police to put Okonkwo behind bars. Only this time, he has to fight the notorious counterfeit drug Mongol, Diokpa Okonkwo (Segun Arinze). Okonkwo had sent his goons to kill Kim earlier, but the attempt was botched when his car ran off the road and somersaulted into a ditch. His father noticed that it wasn’t just a sheer accident, as he made his parents believe. Okonkwo sets up a meeting with Kim in a construction yard. The motive is to finish this humbug once and for all. In the end, Okonkwo is arrested and taken away.
Screenwriters Ita Hozaife and J.K. Amalou want us unconsciously adjudicate between Kim and his father, Pa Dunkin, and their look on life. Kim believes that his father doesn’t like him, as does his older brother, who is only inferred in the story. I won’t take sides. Though it may not be appropriate but yet contextual, I must steal a scene from Fences (2016) between Denzel Washington and his son:
Son, “Can I ask you a question? How come you never like me?
Dad, “What in hell can I like you for? What law is there, say I got to like you?”
“None.”
“Don’t you eat every day?”
“Yes.”
“Nigger as long as you live in my house, add “sir” to your answer.
“Yes, sir”
“Don’t you eat every day?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Don’t you have a roof over your head?”
“Yes, sir.”
“A clothes on your back?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Now, let us get this straight before it goes any further. Ain’t got to like you. Mr. Rand doesn’t give me my money come payday ‘cause he likes me. He gives it to me because I work for it (sic). You live in my house, full your belly with my food, put your behind on my bed…A man is supposed to take care of his family. It is my responsibility. Now don’t go out there expecting people to like you. Now I got everything I’ve got to give you. I gave you your life!”
Dear visitor, you must pick the grains from the chaffs.