Kate Henshaw, Enyinna Nwigwe, Sani Muazu, Ihuoma Linda Ejiofor, Bimbo Manuel, Yakubu Mohammed, Sifon Okoi and Preach Bassey.
After the gruesome murder of her campaign manager Sikiru (Jide Attah), gubernatorial aspirant Mabel King (Henshaw) challenges the victory of the incumbent, Idris Sani (Sani Mu'azu) for her mandate. While governor Sani's associate, St. James (Bimbo Manuel) and Ike's Law School rival, Danladi (Yakubu Mohammed) attempt to subvert the course of justice by eliminating witnesses, King is supported by her loyal aide Ike (Eyinna Nwigwe), and Sikiru's daughter Bukky (Linda Ejiofor).
2hrs
Ishayo Bako
Bem Pever, Ishaya Bako, Kemi 'Lala' Akindoju and Ummi A. Yakubu
Emil B. Garuba and Zainab Omaki
2019
Amazon Prime Video, Netflix
A different view on Nigerian politics with some competent actors
Some incompetent actors and a story that takes a while to get into
It's a film that let's the story shine even though the story is not that engaging. However, the odds are you don't see that end coming.
4th Republic is a movie that you’ve seen many times but is still somehow different.
It follows the events after a governorship election night in the fictional ‘Confluence State’. There are only two candidates left standing/worth considering and that’s the ‘righteous’ Mabel King or the incumbent Idris Sani. The movie starts off with the scenes in a courtroom as a female witness – Amina – narrates the events that happened on that night. From that scene, we rewind back to the election and the campaign that leads us to that moment, then the moment happens, and the film follows Mabel and her team as they try to get justice.
Stating it that simply makes the film seem quite linear, however, the experience of watching it is not the same. The storyline of the film is actually quite difficult to get into. This is not because the elements are not clear from the start. Quite the contrary, the moment you see Kate Henshaw standing as Mabel King the ‘righteousness’ in her characterization reeks, and as soon as Sani smiles, you can point to the villain. In reality, it’s hard to get into this film initially because it’s shrouded in this documentary like feeling.
It almost feels like the need to portray the political dealings in our societies far supersedes the need to tell an engaging story. So we wind up with a protagonist in the person of Mabel King whose character feels like an extended cameo. She’s righteous, she’s the first female gubernatorial candidate, she is the candidate of the people but the forces that be don’t want to see her win: feel bad for her. The most of a window you get into the persona behind the being is in the intelligently done scenes where Mabel wakes up in the middle of the night to go and check up on her children.
The most connection we get to a character or a story arc here is with Ike – played by Enyinna. And this is not necessarily because he was the best actor on screen but more so because his was the character who seemed the most fleshed out. So you feel worse when his family is in a situation than you do when his colleague, Bukky (Linda Ejiofor), is going around still grieving from the loss of her father and trying to find his murderers.
All that aside, after about forty minutes you eventually get into it. It’s hard to decipher if it is that you ‘get into it’ or that you ‘get used to it’. You get used to the mood of the film, you stop expecting the typical strong emotional tug and you might start enjoying the light cursory entanglement that you have with all the characters in the film.
You also get a chance to appreciate the beauty of the film. The cinematography, the picture, the simple unforced elegance of it all. The execution of this movie is such that it does so many things well without the grand notice me moments that new nollywood has come to be known for. So no there aren’t many grand sweeping drone shots here but the shots aren’t any less impressive – if not more impressive. The details of the production are brilliant and engaging especially in the torture scene.
It’s a film that let’s the story shine even though the story is not that engaging. However, the odds are you don’t see that end coming.