Diamonds In The Sky

At the end of the day, repeated tests will continue to prove that good soup requires a combination of good ingredients, good utensils and a good chef. Not one without the other. Diamonds In The Sky (DITS) is a prime example of this.

Diamonds In The Sky (DITS) starts to impress you from the first take. And it’s not just the casual elegance of Toka McBaror’s (DoP) opening shot but also the listing of the cast and the crew. With a stellar crew including writing from Babalola, photography from McBaror and directing from Afolayan, the standards were set pretty high from the start. This was furthered by the cast listing that pairs good actors alongside stellar actors. As far as performances go, there’s no straddler in sight here.

DITS tells three stories in one as it goes from the story of a lower class wife and  provisions seller, Labake (Bimbo Akintola), to the story of the MD of a big business, Aisha (Joke Silva), and finally to our young university student, Teniola (Omowunmi Dada). Each story gets just enough time to establish a basal connection to the audience, and when the conflict begins no singular story is under or over explored.

The Labake story is especially impactful. Bimbo Akintola is paired with Kayode Olaiya (Akanbi) and they make a duo of a struggling lower income family. Akanbi is a taxi driver and Labake is a provision seller. Soon enough their trials in life evolve from the children not liking the quality of the school they attend to an issue that could become a life or death matter. The appeal of their story is in the world created between Labake and Akanbi. The director and the writer collaborate here to present loving characters who are not outlandishly removed from their setting in their romance but still manage to show and carry affection for each other in distinct yet recognizable ways.

Bimbo Akintola puts the effortlessness in effortlessness – YES! She’s the whole darn word! – here with how easily she draws you in to the life of Labake. Her expressions and actions are the rock that this story sits on as she easily glides from troubled to teasing, from worried to accepting, and in her mannerisms you can see so much more than what’s happening on screen. When she accepts her husband’s refusal of the native doctor’s suggestion, you can see the demure of the African woman who knows what she wants to do but chooses to appease her husband’s ego. When she troubles her husband’s football viewing to talk about the children’s school, you can almost touch the familiar tact and strategy of a Nigerian mother without her having to shout it.

Then there is the Teniola story. Omowunmi Dada owns her story here and depicts the heartbreak her character goes through quite convincingly. The best part of this story though is the writing. It’s quite obvious here (and in the entire film) that the purpose is to increase awareness, so the preachiness is inherent. But the genius is in the way that the writer manages to serve this sermon while still including plot devices that move the story forward. It’s a simple thing but yet it’s something nollywood usually struggles with. Our stories that preach tend to only preach at one time, and the ones that are dramatic tend to only be dramatic at one time.

Joke Silva as Hajia Aisha is a class act. If you want to make any good actor seem basic, pair them with Silva in a scene; and when you notice how she can do so much with only a look, you’ll soon realize that others are still learning work.

One can go on and on about the goodness in DITS because it’s quite the unassuming treasure. The pacing at the beginning is brilliant. Before you know it, half of the movie has passed. Unfortunately, the second half doesn’t quite maintain the same energy but it also never looses you. Honestly, the worst part of the film was possibly just the unabashed corniness that Afolayan permits to happen in that last scene as the couple gets dressed and drive out in the night to come out of their car and smile at the sky. Please stop it.

It would be disrespectful to speak of this movie and not mention the brilliance of the editing and the music. The beauty of these two here is that they are never noticed unless you are looking yet they manage to be integral parts of moving the story along and conveying the emotion that is felt.

From the acting to the direction, the casting and the grading, the scoring and the writing and everything in between, Diamonds in the Sky is an enjoyable watch. It suffers from a number of the usual pitfalls but the many good bits make it easy to overlook them.