Riverside Productions, Bukana Motion Pictures, Mixed Tape Soundworks present Rita Dominic (Jumoke Arinze), Kiki Omeili (Amina Abubakar), Emmanuel ‘Mannie’ Essei (Sadiq Abubakar), Joke Silva (Mama Jumoke), Kalu Ikeagwu (Emeka Arinze), Saidi Balogun (Kay), Angel Onqinyechi Unigwe (Adaeze). Director, Ekene Som Mekwunye; Producers, Chidinma Uzodike, Brandi Kallum; Screenplay, Babatunde Ojo Ahmed; Director of Photography Mohammad Atta Ahmed; Executive Producers, Richard Ogbuji, Muti Mekwunye. © 2019.
Light in the Dark is a story about a model middle-class African family of Jumoke Arinze (Rita Dominic), Kalu Ikeagwu (Emeka Arinze), and their beautiful daughter Adaeze (Angel Onqinyechi unigwe). Misfortune struck upon them by a neighbor. They assume Amina Abubakar (Kiki Omeila), their neighbor a family friend. Yet, she conspiratorially set them up with armed robbers, who broke into their home, stole Jumoke’s pieces of jewelry, and violated her.
The incident takes a toll on the once peaceful life of the Arinze family. Already, the ethnic differences (Igbo/Yoruba), or east-west controversies, that had laid dormant begin to show their ugly heads up. Already Jumoke is not readily acceptable by Emeka’s Igbo mother. Mama Jumoke, “You are going to Igboland; why can’t you find a nice Yoruba boy?” And when the rape incident occurs, she further reminds Jumoke, “I warned you. Be careful with these people, eh? Only God knows who your husband offended that robbers came for him. These Igbo boys are no good. In Ibadan, Igbo boys are dangerous at night.”
The conflict in the drama takes the heat when Jumoke discovers that the raper has left her pregnant. She is mad with Emeka because he couldn’t protect her during the rape. For that reason, she moves out of her matrimonial home and moves in with her mother, Mama Jumoke. “Maybe the East meeting the West isn’t such a good idea.” She comments at one point. When Amina, who had caused their demise, tells Jumoke Emeka is messing with a girl she assumes is a girlfriend, she longed to come home.
Light in the Dark reminds one of A Walk in the Dark. In A Walk in the Dark (2013), Ada (Mercy Johnson) gets pregnant out of wedlock by Joel (Van Vicker). The father, Sir Joe (Pete Edoche), wants to keep the pregnancy. Ada’s mother, Edna, wants an abortion. From this point on, the issue of pregnancy- abort or not to abort becomes an issue in both films. It becomes a delicate issue in A Walk in the Dark when Ada’s pregnancy becomes delicate and almost a hazard. The doctor couldn’t recommend her taking the pregnancy to the ninth month.
The issue with Light in the Dark is different. Emeka and Jumoke had had a girl child, Adaeze (Angel Onquinyechi Unigwe), almost ten years ago. They are a sound and happy family, but to accept a pregnancy lodged in Jumoke’s womb by an armed robber is hard to swallow. Emeka and Jumoke doubt (Dark) about whose DNA the child could be, so they have to seek medical advice from a doctor. She has to prove that the child Jumoke is carrying must be either Emeka’s or the robbers through DNA. On their visit to the doctor, she gives them a line of wisdom they take home. “Parenthood is not in the conception; it is in the raising and nurturing of the child.”
What feature of this film we can remember is the work of Mama Jumoke’s crisis managing the situation in the Arinze family. She pulled the family together in Phone Swap (2012) and brought the couple together in Potato Potahto (2017). She is good at playing motherly roles in films. Mama Jumoke keeps telling Jumoke that her place is with Emeka and Adaeze. Rightfully so, Jumoke listens to her mother, even as Mama Jumoke couldn’t outrightly approve of the Igbo boy for a son-in-law. “Those Igbo boys are nothing but trouble.” She grumbled.
Another aspect of this film worth remembering is that Power of Buttocks (2013) used a video camera by Junior (Rahim Banda). The video Rahim records in the movie are the third eye of proof of crime as he records many incidents in the story; for instance, Gardiner and the lady of the house fooled around on camera. Everyone thought it could be an exposition to add to the report; it never did. In Light in the Dark, Amina confesses to the crime on an amateur video camera: The video of Amina’s son plays a significant and undeniable eyewitness role in the story.
Amina on camera: “She owes me the debt of human dignity. Her family treats us like trash because they think they are better than us. I want you to threaten her and violate her. Make her feel worthless.”
The Arinze family manages to understand the doctor’s statement to them the day they opted for DNA. They looked at the issue with an educated eye, assuming that the damage had been done, and the only thing they had to do now was to have the baby. It is relaxing and breathtaking when Emeka is handed the DNA result in the doctor’s office. He holds it high and tears it into pieces: “Parenthood is not in the conception, it is in the raising and nurturing of the child.” Says Jumoke to the doctor, leaving the doctor almost in tears.
Hear Adaeze’s prayers at the news of her mother’s pregnancy: “Dear God, please let my mom be pregnant. I don’t care if it is a boy or girl. All I want is a baby in a beautiful home.” Emeka and Jumoke Arinze and Adaeze see a metaphoric Light in the Dark.
I have followed Rita Dominic for quite a while, almost going on to twenty years of her movie career. Since I became a publisher, she has been in the glare of movie camera and Light since her Children of Terror (1998), video debut, and her not too recent, ’76 appearance with Ramsey Nouah. By then, I mean, …Terror, she must have been in her late twenties, blooming, sumptuous, and charming. Boy! Her black-teeth gum can make you run to Mama and Pawpaw and swear. “she’s the one!” She grew up in a Nollywood household. And that is when the likes of Queen Nwoye, Genevieve Nnaji, Omotala Jalade-before Ekeinde- Mercy Johnson, Judith Ibrahim, Ini Edo, Tonto Dikeh were all coming of age, hand in hand with Nollywood. One never separates the history of Nollywood from these girls in the cot; they were all born together, in that wood, they and Nollywood. For Rita, I can’t wait to watch on Netflix La Femme Anjoli (2021), her latest. It better be good.