By Olobe Yoyon

The new Netflix movie, Ẹlẹ́ṣin Ọba, the King’s Horseman is another adaptation of Wọlé Ṣóyínká timeless 1975 play, Death and the King’s Horseman. The play was inspired by Dúró Ládipọ̀’s 1964 play, Ọba Wàjà (The King is dead).

Both plays are based on a real incident which unsettled the ancient city of Ọ̀yọ́ when a British civil servant prevented the sacrificial suicide of a town chief, Ẹlẹ́ṣin, who was ritually prepared to obey custom and follow his late king to the grave.

In Ọba Wàjà, Dúró Ládipọ̀ tells the story of one Abọ́bakú (one who is required by custom to die with the king) who due to the intervention of a British District Officer, became doubtful of the duty of his office, a most shameful thing to his honour and his family.

Dáwódù, Ẹlẹ́ṣin’s son was disgusted by his father behaviour in breaking faith with tradition. He decided to take upon himself the burden of the office and do the needful. He insulted his father till his last breath, for being cowardly.

Ẹlẹ́ṣin took his life as he was supposed to, however his honour was already gone, and he had also lost his first son. “This is the white man’s doing,’ he cried, ‘the British official, trying to save one life, has caused two deaths.”

Ṣóyínká’s Death and the King’s Horseman is set in the Ọ̀yọ́ Kingdom in south-west Nigeria in the early 1940s. Ọ̀yọ́ tradition demands that Ẹlẹ́ṣin Ọba, the king’s horseman, must commit suicide before the king is buried in order for his spirit to lead the king’s to the great beyond.

However, Ẹlẹ́ṣin Ọba failed in his duty. The story ends on a tragic note, his son, Olunde, has to return from studying medicine abroad to commit suicide in place of his father.

The importance and impact of this story cannot be overemphasised. It has been performed in many countries across the world.

The theme of the clash of cultures continues to resonate with people and further enlightens audiences about colonialism, that no culture is superior to another.

In this Netflix film, the richness of Yoruba culture, its language, music, fashion, dance, proverbs etc, are brought to life. Kudos to late Biyi Bandele for the job well done.

The main lessons from the story include:
As a person, you have a sense of duty to your ancestors and your people.

To Europeans represented by Mr Pilkings and his wife, if you do not understand a culture, ignorance is not a crime but conduct arising from ignorance can be. Be humble enough to ask why things are being done the way custodians of tradition do their things even if they sound ridiculous to you.

A great inspiration should be drawn from the character of Olunde, the British educated son of Ẹlẹ́ṣin Ọba who trained in England as a medical doctor. In spite of his western education, he still understands his culture and his family ties.

Whatever you do, do not abandon your mother tongue. Do not trample on your tradition. Do not throw away your culture. Do not mock our Òrìṣà and Irúnmọlẹ̀.

N.B: Culture is not static, it is in a state of constant flux. Some of our old traditions are no longer relevant in today’s world. We have rightly long abandoned the practice of ritual suicide in Yorubaland.

I watched the film in Yoruba and I love it. Will try the English voice over tomorrow.

Ire o.

As at August 2022, about 52,000 out of 74,000 inmates in Nigerian prisoners are waiting many years to be served justice; only 3 out of every 10 people languishing in Nigerian prisons have been convicted. What is more pathetic is the circumstances surrounding how some found themselves behind bars and the agonizing situation of spending years in Nigeria’s shanty prisons. If anything is worse than slave trade, it is the black man’s most populous nation’s snare of despair denominated as justice system.

Lanre Olorunnishola was caught in the trap of Nigeria’s unjust system, wrongfully incarcerated and served the sour taste of a dehumanizing prison experience. Unlike the lot of 90% of such victims, he was fortunate enough to get a chance at life after spending 11 days. He goes on to write a book about his experience (called ‘Prison Notes’) and a friend who’s a veteran TV production guru, Chuks Enete partnered to wax the story for the silver screen as his own debut solo film project.

‘Inside Life’ produced by Siloth Studios and distributed by Silverbird Film Distribution is an adaption of Lanre’s story and laudable spotlight on worthy indignation towards Nigeria’s judiciary. The movie by AIT and Iroko TV-famed filmmaker, Chuks Enete was premiered at the Silverbird Galleria on the 8th of September and released to cinemas across Nigeria on the following day. The film is co-written by the story’s protagonist, Lanre Olorunnishola, and Chuks Enete, directed by Tope Adebayo Salami, edited by Dipo Teniola. The movie casted Wole Ojo, Broda Shaggi, Nnedu of Wazobia FM, Romeo WJ, Tina Mba, Koloman, Belinda Effah, Saka, Ropo Ewenla, and Okey Uzoeshi. Others include MC Benkash, Chukwuka Jude, Jerry Okpan, Jay Hemkay, Zara Udofia Ejoh, Yinka Aiyelokun, Peter Oladeji, Funsho Adeolu, Enechukwu Uche, Ekiti Father and Eric Obinna, while Idowu Adedapo is Director of Photography.

Summary of the Story

A few days before his wedding, Larry (Wole Ojo) is assigned to represent his boss at a court hearing, a prolonged civil dispute with the Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSTIF), over Chief’s (Larry’s MD played by Chuks Enete) headstrong refusal to pay his dues to the agency, premised on a rebellion against paying government while he bares the skyrocketing cost of running his business alone. The company’s lawyer (played by Okey Uzoeshi) does not show up and NSTIF’s lawyer (Tina Mba) got the magistrate to wrongfully remand Larry in prison as a lesson to the company for disregarding the court process.

Larry needs to fight for his release for his wedding to his sweetheart fiancée (Belinda Effah), but then, he must learn to survive the dire condition of the prison and come out alive regardless. Larry moves from being a dove in the raft of ducks to flirting with the pangs for survival. His initial ability to gain rare privileges with the prison officials earned him enmity with hitherto protective cell lords, but his ingenious charity to all cellmates soon got him affable attention much that the toughest of the lot (played by Broda Shagi) sort out his help, sharing with him even more distressing stories of his own wrongful imprisonment and total despair.

Analysis of the Plot Elements

The movie begins with an aloof brutal murder scene, blacks out, and transitions to a gothic scene of two lovers waking up to early morning curdle and reminiscence of their ‘bedmatic’ through the night. Within the first minute of the plot’s exposition, one can tell the dichotomous style of the plot.

The story slowly moves from the everyday life of young hardworking hopefuls and sharply turns to the details of life’s capriciousness. Maybe this makes a good reason for naming it Inside Life.

To us at Nollytrailers, we think the writers, perhaps riding on the power of epic storytelling, smartly unfolded the story’s main characters, hinting by dialogue and actions, their personalities, and quickly erupting emotive followership for the audience.

The rising actions were a steady climb towards the climax. Larry moves from being a fine eligible bachelor, high-profile staff of his company, who had just been gifted a huge sum as his MD’s support towards his forthcoming wedding, to a stunned witness in the box in a case he had no clue about, then to a benevolent but angry suspect who had to pay for his own transportation to prison, then to a star inmate who has privileged unrestricted access to the chief warder’s office, and then to a co-parker in the rigour and torture of life in a crowded prison cell, with perhaps no certainty of regaining his freedom anytime soon, since the judge on his case has suddenly collapsed and is incapacitated to hear his case on the next adjournment.

The climax came quite full-stack, comically captured by Dele’s (the president of the prison cell) initial wisdom to Larry, “When jungle don mature, okoro go know where him de”. Larry suffers the same fate as other inmates; external visits stopped and privileges vanished as usual contacts either got transferred or put out of reach by other wardens whom he had earlier spoken to arrogantly when he first got there.

The falling actions go on a sublime decent into the closure, but wisely picturing the story’s theme of the importance of faith and the eventual embrace of the miracle-working potency of praying and believing when all other things fail. Larry’s atheist position soon gets transformed once he recognised that only a miracle can get him off the hooks.

From believing to reforming, Larry’s travail captured all the important steps that leads towards the resolution of the story’s critical matter and a restoration to status quo.

There’s a part of the movie that is brilliantly left for the interpretation of the audience, which leaves an intuitive open end – Larry, while in jail, had a dream that his fiancée was celebrating with the company’s lawyer the success of their evil plan to have him reprimanded by trapping him with the lawyer’s absence from court. The dream meant that his most beloved and trusted human was the mastermind of his tribulations.

The writers never gave a material concession to the substance of this dream and as such left it to the imagination of the audience.

Analysis of Creative Elements
Script/Story

If there is anything that stands out with this movie, it is the powerful story it tells. The writers did an incredible job of interpreting Lanre Oluwanishola’s true life story by setting the entire project mainly on the prison experience. Just that would have likely been a bore to the comedy-loving Nigerian audience, but smartly, the script was spiced up with apt comic relieves.

For instance, there’s a scene where Larry was tearing and condemning religion with the assertion that organized religion was a big scam. He shortly realized painfully a little later that his seemly short imprisonment may become elongated. He turns to Dele to wail, complaining also about the rice that was served the prisoners and asking why not yam instead. The cell’s ‘presido’ hits back at his lack of regard for the power of prayers with sarcasm, “The yam you need to chop now na I am than I am”.

The dialogues are brilliant, funny and well laced with wisdom – able to instruct heavily on the irony of a supposedly blessed nation and the agony of its people. Unlike a lot of works that feature an array of comedy skit makers, this did justice to the effort at sprinkling light-hearted-moments without having unnecessary overtures.

Broda Shagi had a brilliant display of street jokes and ‘agberoism’ that is a prefect reflection of the life in a Nigerian prison. Dele was such a perfect character of a hard but wise cell lord, dropping doses of ghetto wisdom – profound in its depth, but crude and funny in its tone. One noteworthy excerpt is his stump reaction to Larry’s denial of reality, where he encouraged him to eat what was served in prison. In response to Larry’s insistence that he had no appetite, Dele goes “Designer prisoner. You no get appetite ba, no worry jungle go soon mature and you go know say last last Mandela chop Apartheid”.

Quite a rib-cracking joke but also an en explosive dialogue that connects the realities of the unjust justice system of Apartheid South Africa to that of present day Nigeria. It also delves into the projection of the fate of the character who seem too headstrong to embrace the present and will be well on the way to spending a long time in prison if he does not explore the power for miracles.

Casting and Characterization

Most of the actors were in character, though a few would have done better. Chief (The MD) played by the executive producer himself, Chuks Enete, beyond the apt ‘Ogene’ sounds that accentuated his scenes, was short of perfect in roleplaying. There was an obvious effort to fit into the personality of a crude wealthy Igbo businessman. This easily give up the mystery that ought to come with interpreting the role and therefore is below the current industry standard.

Belinda Effah was also not at her best. Her interpretation of a devastated fiancée visiting her partner in jail was short of believability. She acted and sounded like a starter in a drama rehearsal. Watching her, the character’s pain could not be felt, her confusion was not obvious and expected exasperation towards the company was totally silent.

Wole Ojo delivered Larry’s character to the fullest. Every step of the way, there was no emotion, personality or nuances of the character that was not communicated; Larry’s ego was depicted in and off the mic and the personality transformations were well captured in his acting. Kudos!

Brother Shaggi and Nedu did justice to the characters of leading the ‘Ikoyi vs Agege’ strata of the prison; personalities, checked! Dialogue, checked! Actions and reactions, checked!

The casting is also quite good. Love the minor roles of the big names like Tina Mba and Funsho Adeolu. The cast, safe for a few snags, by frame and personality fused perfectly into the plot of the story and delivered quite well its themes.

Directing

Directing is but an okay job for this movie. There are obvious issues with the sets, costumes and transitions that ought not to have skipped the calls of Dipo Teniola and Tope Adebayo.

For instance the costume is totally unbelievable! Here are prisoners who have stayed an average of 2 years in jail, all having stylish clean shaves. The dialogue at the chief warden’s office hinted that Larry was going into a 35-man cell, the shots were set in a less than 15-man prison, almost scanty.

Cinematography

Dipo Adedapo may have given his best to this but there are certainly no wow moments from the filming of this movie. It is nothing more than basic shots.

There were efforts to add some creativity through camera techniques but that also fell flat – the filming at a tilted angle combined with shaky panning just didn’t work quite well.

The lighting at the main set also could have been better. In fact, it presented the cinematographer an opportunity to display creativity, given that over 70% of the movie was shot on that set. Nigerian prisons are often quite dark, poorly ventilated with walls riddled with amateurish graffiti. Dapo could have ridden on this to explore tricks like off-subject shots in silhouette or playing creatively with exposure, extra lighting for focus matter or even sunrays-drop background for early morning dialogues, etc.

Music/Sound Design

Tosin Amire, the young FUTA graduate of Applied Mathematics turned sound designer, did a great job on the sound design for this film. The sound in some scenes helped to enliven the poor performance of some acts, like that of Chief (The ‘igbotic’ MD). Though the sound production quality could have been better, but the large-scale original compositions were good and aptly distributed across the movie’s scenes.

The overall production quality is average. This is owing to the less emphasis placed on Directing and Cinematography. This would have easily been a 4 star movie.
Inside Life is easily a high-recommendation movie chiefly because of its powerful story, theme and overall message to the nation. It is also a good pick for a couple’s date night (would have been great for a family was it not for the few scenes of gunshots). You will be sure to really get cracked up seeing this movie.
Hit the cinemas to see for yourselves, better with company though, you don’t want to deal with laughing and falling on a stranger’s shoulders if you are alone. You might just receive sneer or slap. In the words of Broda Shagi in the film, “Who de microwave liver for you?”

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Rubicon is a movie set in the ancient city of Ibadan, produced by Starkingdom Productions and an initiative broadcaster Dr. Adebayo Faleke of Fresh FM Nigeria. The drama with dialogue entirely in Yoruba but well subtitled in English was produced in 2021 but released to the cinemas across Nigeria on the 12th of August 2022.

Adebayo Faleke who doubled as the main cast and the producer is no doubt living up to the billing as a multi-talented communicator. He only a few years ago authored a book: Dilemmas of a Country.

Before then, he had launched National Cake and Banana Republic, audiovisual records that exposed the mismanagement of so-called leaders in Nigeria.

In a press conference before the release of Rubicon, Dr Faleke once again hinged his inspiration for this new work on the need to “…inspire the people to do the needful in order to correct the mistakes of the past which include vote selling, conscience selling, corrupt practices and other political anomalies” as Nigeria’s general election draws close.

Bayo O or Bayo Kaakaki, as fondly called, is a brilliant Yoruba newscaster and entertainer whose impact in the Ibadan radio industry is undisputed. The director on the set of Rubicon is Ade Idris Jerry, a fast-growing director often adjudged to possess a good sense of interpreting scripts in unique and different ways.

Rubicon assembles A-list actors, entertainers, and broadcasters in what seems more like the marriage of the best of new and traditional media. Among these are Yoruba movie-industry-famed actors like Akin Lewis, Saidi Balogun, Taiwo Ibikunle, Awoyemi Bukola (AKA Arugba); comic acts and skit makers, Debo ‘Mr Macaroni’ Adedayo, Ayo Ayewole ‘Woli Agba’, and superstar music maestro and media investor, Yinka Ayefele, who also is Dr Faleke’s boss. Ace broadcasters like Kola Olootu and Alhaji Abolade Salami also had short but vital roles in this projected.

Summary of the story

Rubicon (Agbedemeji) follows the story of Adesola Adigun (Dr Faleke) a famous OAP with high moral standards and principles that sees him undermine his basic livelihood and personal safety to hang on to his beliefs when caught up between accepting a life-transforming publicity deal from a corrupt politician and facing rejection consequences. Adigun’s wife, played by Awoyemi Bukola had just moved out and separated from him after numerous arguments about his inability to meet with bare necessities despite the numerous opportunities available to him to enrich himself with his fame.

Adigun’s integrity is further tested when Dr Tayo (played by Richardo Agbor) who was just appointed as Senator Ipadeola’s political strategist in the build up to the gubernatorial elections, proposed using him as leverage to win the love of the masses. The management of Kaakaki FM and Adigun were approached with an outrageous offer that would turn everyone involved into millionaires, but Adigun’s outright refusal soon precipitated pressures from his boss, the General Manager of the station, played by Saidi Balogun. After several attempts to put Adigun ‘on the side of reason’, the GM fired him for his indiscretion, and Adigun after some short period of joblessness took his childhood friend and industry colleague, Debo (Mr Macaroni)’s advice, approached a bigger radio station, Fresh FM with the backing of some brands to reinstate his popular radio show.

While Adigun’s alternative to “selling a black market”, in the manner of corrupt Senator Ipadeola seemed to have calmed the storm in his life, he’s soon faced with the threat of his own dirty past coming public and discrediting his new posture of uprightness. Adigun goes on to take a brazen ‘tell all’ stand during his live show and by that irked his now inimical suitor, Senator Ipadeola. Adigun is shortly after arrested for possessing an unregistered rifle and stands with the fate of most poor, ‘unconnected’ masses who ever dared to contend with the powerful few of Nigeria.

Analyses of plot elements

Nothing about this movie is new to Nollywood storytelling. The themes of love, betrayal, and triumph are typical of any script dating back to the earliest years of filmmaking in the 1950s. The plot, therefore, has no significant impact on the viewership journey of moviegoers, who would easily hint at the next scene.

The introduction of the character was rushed up. Within the first few scenes one can tell what everyone was about, without no significant emotional attachment. This is except for the character Mr Macroni played, which the script smartly deployed the ‘hint and tell later’ technique to unveil. The ultimate theme of morality comes straight at you from the start and you can quickly relate with the style of Dr Faleke’s previous projects.

In a similar manner to the exposition element of the plot, the rising action mounts quite quickly and holds the viewers’ to a long wait for the climax, which only comes at the tail-end of the movie.

The falling action is silent and can even be missed, as the writers went for emphasizing the denouement (closure), which is a normal technique in Yoruba storytelling.

Analyses of creative elements

Music and sound design for this work is very poor. It is as low-standard as the lighting, set design, and cinematography. One would wonder how it ever made it to the cinema. This may make reason for how Nollytrailers was the only person in the hall at Viva Cinema, Ikeja when he went to see the movie.

Though the casting is great for marketing, with all the big names across three key sectors of the entertainment and media industries, the fitting of the roles is very questionable. Besides the excellent delivery of Akin Lewis, Mr Macaroni and Arugba, most other major actors, inclusive of the main cast himself, were amateurish.

Wole Agba’s acting was terrible, his costume and make-up, even worse. He looks like a child acting like a 42 or 45 year old elder brother. This is no comedy skit, this movie was purposed for the big screen!

Adigun’s character was not fully explored and the emotive part was poorly executed. For instance, the scene where Adigun was caught by the police and was being interrogated; he obviously wailed without a single tear. Another scene that points to the abysmal roleplaying was when he was at the bar with his friend (Mr Macroni) discussing his predicament and was advised to take the offer from Senator Ipadeola; Dr Faleke was to interpret the character of an enraged Adigun rebuking his friend, but acted more like an indulgent parent scolding a four-year old.

Wole Agba and Dr Faleke’s scene on Adigun’s visit to his supposed wife’s elder brother to beg for his wife’s return was a charade! The attempt at interplaying comedy and pain fell flat on the floor.

Though the story is trite and sometimes outrightly unbelievable – like the assertion by the Political Strategist that Adigun and his fan base can earn Senator Ipadeola 70% of the votes (impracticable in reality), some parts are brilliantly interpreted to earn a niche medal. One of that brilliance is seen in how they played Yinka Ayefele as a prophet without the stereotype of singing in a wheelchair. It is noteworthy also that the entertainer did a good job with the script.

The story’s touch on the menace of upcoming artiste bribing to get their songs played on radio is also a commendable effort to spotlight societal ills. This short cutaway in the movie raises attention to the long-standing debate on copyright infringements between musical artistes and broadcast stations.

Praiseworthy also is the attention on the evil of religious leaders availing themselves as political levers, helping our evil leaders cow the masses. The attempt to ‘enter’ Adigun through his prophet (Yinka Ayefele) by donating to the church project and the bible verses bartering between Adigun and the prophet is a brilliant messaging to the church.

The writers also did well with the twist when Adunni, Adigun’s new housemaid was caught with a bundle of cash while attempting to run away after her boss was caught and detained for having an unregistered rifle. At that moment, you would just roll your eyes, thinking ‘what a bland falling action’, until it turns out that she only stole, she wasn’t the one who planted the gun!

Laudable also was the projection of Adigun’s wife as supportive in the face of tribulation. Despite the fact that they were separated, she fervently prayed for him, held to and propagated the firm belief in her husband’s integrity, and sort out help that eventually got him off the hook.

The final parts of the movie also silently communicated the sad reality of life; that in the constellations of evil, greed, love for bad news and exaggerated rumour mongering in Nigeria, when retribution comes knocking, some evil people will manage to escape. That is the case for Adigun’s colleague at Kakaki FM, who Adigun had found out was taking bribes from musical artistes to play their songs, reported his matter to GM and was allowed to slide because it was a syndicate of bribe-taking the GM himself chaired. The same colleague venomously wrote an exaggerated news report to announce Adigun’s arrest on their station. Well, after Adigun’s triumph over his travesty, reinstatement to Kaakaki FM, and promotion to the position of GM, the very guy was one of those that welcomed him back with a big smile, like nothing ever happened! Smaller bad eggs often survive the tsunami of change.

In the film, there were several attempts to slide in comic reliefs, but failed brutally (Woli Agba was not just delivering). But there’s one scene that will really get you cracking and it is another occasion when Wole Agba and Bukola (Arugba) quarreled over the travail of her husband and her brother’s trivialization of the matter. She was praying when he walks in and mockingly joined her, then she had to reprimand him. After few back and forth ‘jabbing’, Wole Agba goes, “As you were praying I remembered when God called me and I didn’t write down the date, oh, if only I did…now I am seeing angels in this asbestos ceilings…” Lol.

Verdict

The overall production quality of this movie is far lower than the current industry standard. It falls short in many ways.

Directing, for instance, could have been much better. The director, Ade Jerry, who featured himself was not quite impressive. A lot of the scenes ought to have been reshot. More importantly, the flow of the story is a bit distorted; How do you reconcile that Adigun, who was portrayed as a very homely man, after being told that the wife was behind his release from prison, did not meet and reconcile with her until she suddenly shows up in the last scene, when he was reinstated back and being celebrated at Kakaki FM. This was a typical Yoruba movie way of not leaving anything to the imagination; make sure all doors opened in the course of the story must be closed at the end.

For the few comic reliefs and the important messages in this film, viewers can take a shot at seeing it. Maybe their judgment may be different.

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