Film One Entertainment, Empire Entertainment, Huahua Media, Kountry Kulture Network, TMPL Motion Pictures, present Amaechi Muonagor (Ndio), Theresa Edem (Haggal), Venita Akpofure (Princess), Ada Ameh (Witch 2), Rachael Oniga (Witch), Nkem Owoh (Prof Pium), Charles Inojie (Uncle Jakpa), Fares Boulos (Roy), Akan Anani (Driver), Sofi Akalaji (Ame), Bovi Ugboma (Prince) Binta Ayo Mogaji (Witch 3), Mimi Onalaja (Mrs. Okafor), Francis Sule (Young Joe), Oge Amuta (stunning Beauty). Director, Niyi Akinmolayan; Screenplay, Bovi Ugboma; Producer, Winnie Okpapi; Cinematography, Adeoluwa Owu. © 2021.
Fifteen years ago, I reviewed a little-known film, The Followers (2009), pp. 255- 256, Nollywood Movie Reviews–a Kenneth Okonkwo production––just the thought of it, I wonder where these producers are now––Emeka Ike (Bob) loved a girl, Nadia Buari (Sandra). Still, Sandra was indebted to the Demonic spirit world. Sandra betroths the Demon, who couldn’t let her marry anyone in real life. After killing so many suitors, Bob survives his killing powers. Eventually, one night, while Sandra and Bob are sleeping, the spirit comes between them, takes Bob up in the air, deposits him at the thoroughfare in the middle of the city, and leaves him there. A poor plot mechanics, but this was Nollywood coming of age. At the end of The Followers review, this is precisely what I summarily wrote:
Imagine a film where the underworld gods battle for love and redemption, reminiscent of the epic Trojan War. Imagine if Pastor Jude (Emeka Ani) stepped in to save the day. This unique and thrilling climax could make ‘My Village People’ a cinematic masterpiece and a must-see for all film enthusiasts.
Something personal about reviewing films always appeals to reviewers. My Village People is a Greek-type mythology story set in the village of Gbovi, and Prince is our Apple of Discord here. When Prince (Bovi Ugboma) joined his sister, Princess (Venita Akpofure), in her traditional marriage to Roy (Fares Boulos), he never knew what lay ahead of him. He is neither a Christian nor a Muslim nor an idol worshipper––a free thinker, pure and simple. He never cared about his people’s customs and traditions in Obovi.
Prince had given his sister the parting promise on her way back to the city: “No eating, no drinking. Don’t touch anybody. No hugs, no handshakes. No, seriously, don’t ruin my traditional honeymoon,” The Princess had barely left when the Prince broke every promise he had made to his sister. Disregarding superstitions and disrespecting tradition, he lets Ndio touch him and lets his granddaughter present his gift of a gourd of palm wine and bush meat wrapped in old newspaper to him.
Prince has broken all the promises he made to his sister. “There’s the night before daybreak,” she had said. (Both) “And darkness functions more at night.” Prince doesn’t take heed. Ndio’s granddaughter Haggal (Theresa Edem), a girl he had seen and who seized his gaze during the traditional ceremony, escorts him to his motel room, and they spend the night together. In the room with Haggal, he’s spooked when the young girl repeatedly asks him to repeat, “I love you, I love you, I love you,” so many times before she can kiss him. Then, three-sister witches followed him from the time he entered the village and even paid him a visit to his motel, presenting him with a black soap, which he, out of wariness, accepted. Boy, their presence with insufficient lighting on them and their shrieking waves of laughter would run a chill off your spine.
Prince is assigned a presentation project in his office in Lagos with his office mate, Ameh (Ada Ameh), who hails from a neighboring village, Esa, across the river from Obovi. Prince’s trouble starts when Haggal, whom he had left in Obovi, later follows him to Lagos and finds Prince has a crush on Ameh, a water goddess in the spiritual realm but an office mate in the real world—enough of the spoiler. Now, let’s analyze Ugboma’s epic story of gods at war for the love of Prince.
This story is set in an African mythological realm. Ameh in the Lagos office is from a village considered an Outcast by Obovi villagers. Ameh is a marine spirit who won’t give up on Prince. Can’t you see Prince and Haggal were caught in a love web with Ameh? A spiritual war involving the sea goddess (Ameh) and Haggal for claim over the Prince ensues. As befalls the characters in the Trojan War, these two goddesses fight over Prince.
Obovi has been looking forward to Prince coming into the village, the chosen one he is, to be crowned among his people. But the spirit across the river to Esa wants him to her side. This is the same mistake Prince and Princess’s parents made when their son from Obovi crossed the river and married an outcast in Esa. Hence, they were killed. Haggal and Ameh lock horns like the goddesses in Greek mythology, Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite, eventually leading to the Trojan War in Homer’s Iliad. Here, we witness a vanity-fueled war involving Haggal, Ameh, and the three witches, all in combat to own Prince.
The war between Ameh (water spirit) from Esa, an outcast village, and Haggal from Obovi, feeling superior, spills into the open, and humans, as innocent as they can be, must take sides between the two fighting spirits. Prince is taken in by Bishop Devine (Zubby Michael) of those two-by-four holy ghost churches whose establishments look like dungeons. He is a scam and gets whipped by Haggal as she hunts all over town for her lover, Prince. Later, Prof Pium (Nkem Owoh) fruitlessly embroiled himself in the same war between the goddesses of Esa and Obovi.
I will not accept what most reviewers append to the character of Prince: that he’s a Casanova or womanizer. In the one-and-a-half-hour narrative, Prince doesn’t go hopping and dogging girls all over town. Circumstances bring him to Haggal and Ameh, not by his design, but by his undoing. On the one hand, he is a natural prince of the village of Obovi, who, in one sense, was expecting him to take the throne, and on the other, a corrupt sea spirit from Esa wants to lay claim to him as a husband. Suppose the golden apple of Eris corrupting the wedding that ends in the Trojan War is the same as the gourd of palm wine and bush meat. In that case, Ndio is not invited to the traditional ceremony of Princess and, therefore, aggrieved. I may be looking deeper past the simple story Ugboma concocted for us, yet I believe that naming his lead as Prince, I cannot put past Homer’s Prince Paris in the Iliad. It could be so or not.
There’s, however, a scene in My Village People that catches my eye. Uncle Jakpa (Charles Inojie) talks to the Prince and Princess about why the village people didn’t want to accept the ceremony in the village of Obovi. Since their parents died (Prince/Princess), they have never paid dues to the village for their attachment to the home of their ancestors. I have a personal story: In our party’s annual convention some years back, I proposed that all diasporans pay a certain percentage of the revenue of their tax returns in their home countries. A percentage goes to the chiefdoms they hail from, another to the district of their villages, and the rest to the national government. I put a $50 bill in an envelope as a good gesture toward the project to be presented to our leader. Imagine, I was laughed off the podium like a lunatic. That is how monumental ideas die with lowly people. Eritrea brings in billions of dollars annually in national revenue through diasporan contributions from tax returns. Yet, I am the fool!