Blood Sisters

In an era of remakes like “Living In Bondage” and “Nneka the Pretty Serpent” with some remakes being above the mark while others not even recognizes that a mark exists, it might bring you joy to realize that the Netflix Limited Series “Blood Sisters” is actually not a remake of the Omotola Jolade and Genevieve Nnaji classic.

Blood Sisters tells the story of two friends, Sarah (Ini Dima-Okojie) and Kemi (Nancy Isime), who are actually not sisters by blood. They are two close friends who find their bond strengthened further when they both find themselves in a precarious situation at Sarah’s wedding. Sarah, an average Igbo girl, is set to marry the wealthy heir to the Ademola throne, Kola Ademola (Deyemi Okanlawon). Except in reality this dream union is more of a nightmare as Kola has a knack for knacking women violently. On the day of the traditional wedding, as he tries to strangle Sarah, Kemi struggles with him and shoots him dead. And so begins the story of these girls’ trials.

Blood Sisters is all of ‘new nollywood’ standards while being a deviation from the norm. New nollywood is known for doing things ‘big’ even though sometimes that ‘big film’ is vacuous and has no content (see “Chief Daddy 1 & 2″).  New nollywood is also known for star-studded films where the cast roll is filled with names of people who added zero essence to the storyline but came to compete for eyes. And this is where Blood Sisters distinguishes itself, yes there are cameos from big names like Joke Silva and Zack Orji but each in a role that keeps the story moving.

Speaking of keeping the story moving, one thing the four hour limited series does well is keep eyes glued to the screen. The extraneous is shaved off here and every scene that is intended to thrill does indeed thrill and the audience is kept invested in every step of the journey for Sarah and Kemi. The film does well to pander to both types of nollywood audiences – the type that likes the glitz and glam and the type that likes the grit and raw. The first 2 episodes caters to the former and the last two the latter and it manages to do this without skipping a beat.

Another way Blood sisters deviates from the new nollywood norm is in the writing. On the surface it really is an on-the-run story. However, there are layers to the characters especially that of the Ademola family that is revealed sequentially in the series. Characters here are given personalities and the writers do a decent of explaining a good number of the personality arcs by the end. There is Femi Ademola (Gabriel Afolayan) the desperate brother whose motivations are eventually revealed, there is Teymisan, there is Zack Orji’s character and then there is Mrs Ademola herself. Kate Henshaw as the matriarch of the family truly pulls things together. You might initially be shocked at her role considering her age but she evacuates that shock promptly and replaces it with awe as she takes on a God father/ “King of Boys” energy that you would never have thought to ascribe to her but only seems fitting after seeing this. There are a few scenes here and there where the attempt to make her seem intense comes off a bit forced. However, for the most part Kate belongs in this role.

There are quite a few performance revelations in this film. First off would have to be Genoveva Umeh as Timeyin – the drug addict sister of Kola Ademoyin. From scene to her final redemption moment, Genoveva embodies the role so much that I am a 100% certain that she will now be typecast as the spoilt rich girl from now on by our uber original nollywood casting directors. She is effortless and convincing in the role quite unlike Uche Jombo as Sarah’s mom. Yes, it is a bit confusing to accept that Uche Jombo and Kate Henshaw are now old enough to play mothers to Deyemi and Ini. However, while Kate’s aesthetics and performance eventually convinces you after the first couple of scenes, Uche doesn’t quite have the same effect. Her initial entry with the Igbo market woman ‘vim’ is fascinating but afterwards, it is difficult to reconcile her in the role.

Our female leads Ini Dima-Okojie and Nancy Isime do a good job individually of bringing life to their characters. While Nancy’s character might be the easier one to remember to applaud because of the strength of Kemi’s character, it’s important to realize that meekness of Sarah’s character was also well portrayed by Ini. Their chemistry together as friends and sisters didn’t quite show as strongly on screen though.

All in all, Blood Sisters, might not be the first time you are seeing this storyline in general. However, it’s an exciting output from new nollywood on netflix that ensures us that our criticism is being listened to and excites us for the future of nollywood to the world.