Morris Sesay, Chioma Chukwuka-Akpotha, Robert Peters,
A young man is driven to the depths of despair when he is overlooked for promotion at work and is unable to pay the hospital bills for his pregnant wife to safely deliver their baby
Desmond Elliot
Morris Sesay
2013
I have been reluctant to watch a film even vaguely connected to Sierra Leone because of the train wreck ‘Hatred’, but I didn’t realise until halfway through the film when I couldn’t understand the pidgin being spoken. But my stupidity did not cost me anything except a lot of tears. Beware this is a tear jerker for sure.Infact my eyes are getting misty thinking about this one particular scene
I had seen the synopsis and was initially unimpressed, after all it is a fairly common storyline but I then saw the director and the screenwriter and I was motivated to see where they would take it to. I was not disappointed. While it wasn’t original, based on so many crime drama episodes, the story was skilfully told. The narration was concise and consistent. The ending was the only let down in the story because it just not thought out and tried too hard to replicate previous storylines. But there seems to be a trade-off for this story because the filmmakers had to make a choice between predictability and originality. It was enjoyable to figure out the facets of the story as it went by and try and piece together the small details.
The credits do not show the cast so I only just describe the actors as best as I can.Morris Sesay was fabulous, absolutely flawless. This is the first time I have seen him because of above, but after this I went back to watch a film he starred in. His character on the other hand was interesting, you could empathize with him but at times he took some very bad decisions. The other actors were also great and I cannot think of one bad apple. Shout out to the man who played the pastor-sorry –prophet, he was very entertaining and memorable even though he was on screen for no more than five minutes. It was nice to see Robert Peters again after a very long break and hopefully we will see him in more films. None of the extras were weak or wooden and the brief cameo from Chioma Chukwuka did not seem amiss. Another extra was a tall girl that I have seen before in a very brief part but is definitely one to watch out for.
The scenes were flawless and always had a definite point. The directing was very constrained and well thought out. Except the end. Is this now Desmond Elliot’s signature? The production value was also superb however the location was puzzling to me, was the location in Lagos or Sierra Leone? The audio was perfect and the visuals were as good. But extra praise must be given because the subtitles were on point, easy to understand and correct.The soundtrack was very good at creating atmosphere and gave the film a very sophisticated gloss, this was aided by the score.
In conclusion I would advise to watch with a box of tissues. I do have one question, apart from Chioma Chukwuka transporting herself, if someone took your child would you take the time to bathe, and do makeup?
Onye Egwu
No Way Through
The man who played the prophet is a Yoruba actor who just got married to another Yoruba actress, don’t know his name though but I remember his face. I am an emotional person but was shocked this movie didn’t move me to shed a tear, it only annoyed me and left me puzzled. What annoyed me is how everyone was flocking around Morris’s character and trying to ‘help’ after he had lost his wife and baby. I know this is simply the fact at times but its just horrible- when he needed money for the bills, where were all these people particularly those who followed chanting his name? At least he should have gone and begged and they might have contributed another 30% to add to his 30% and make up the 60% of the Hospital bills instead of the house rent contribution that seemed somehow useless without a family in it.
Another thing of which I am glad you acknowledged in your “little details” and “except the end” comments is the police scene. Please unless things have changed for the better, I do not know any Nigerian or Sierra Leon police that will ‘waste’ such amount of manpower as they say for just one case. Haba! let’s be realistic now and how can they shoot to kill when they clearly see that he was holding a newborn? What if Chioma didn’t catch the baby? Even as she caught the child that drop from such height isn’t good for any newborn no matter what. Well all in all it was a good try for the story line and they actors did the job they were told to do which made the cake good, it would have been the icing on the cake if all looses ends were properly tied.
The man who played the prophet is a Yoruba actor who just got married to another Yoruba actress, don’t know his name though but remember his face. I am an emotional person but was shocked this movie didn’t move me to shed a tear, it only annoyed me and left me puzzled. What annoyed me is how everyone was flocking around Morris’s character and trying to ‘help’ after he had lost his wife and baby. I know this is simply the fact at times but its just horrible, when he needed money for the bills, where were all these people particularly those who followed chanting his name? At least he should have gone and begged and they might have contributed another 30% to add to his 30% and make up the 60% of the Hospital bills instead of rent contribution that seemed somehow useless without a family in it.
Another thing which
That He didn’t think to ask his neighbors when they would have been happy to help really got me.They didn’t know until after the fact that was why they were all happy and chanting to see the new baby. His wife also may not have died if he had just done what the sister wanted instead of going to his boss. That made me sad.