On April 2, 2021, Anthill Productions and FilmOne’s comedy film, Prophetess, had its world premiere in Nigerian theaters.

Directed by Niyi Akinmolayan, co-written by Niyi and Yusuf Carew and Amaka Chidoka, the movie stars Toyin Abraham, Kehinde Bankole, Deyemi Okanlawon, Kunle Remi, Lateef Adedimeji, and Tina Mba and others. Additionally, Ronke Oshodi-Oke, Muyiwa Ademola, Stan Nze, Uzor Arukwe, and Seyi Awolowo, a participant on the 2019 season of Big Brother Naija, made an appearance.

Here’s a belated but important review of the movie, which grossed over N140million across Nigeria cinemas and garnered a large fan base in 2021. The box office success of Prophetess was sort of a shock to its critics who thought the story and set was too ordinary to generate as much viewership, giving that Nollywood hits hold common traits of showing the pop culture.

Summary

Prophetess tells the story of a prophetess who unwittingly made a series of forecasts that all came true, prompting an entire community to wager on her last prediction about how a relegated side will beat one of the league’s top teams.

The protagonist of the tale is Ajoke (Toyin Abraham), a prophetess whose capers are caught on camera by Dipo (Kunle Remi) and posted on social media. Salewa (Tina Mba) and Iya Ibeji (Ronke Oshodi-Oke), OAP Dipo, who resides in Lagos and with a huge fan base, to Ajoke for cleansing. The prophetess responds to various inquiries from Dipo with some insights that the audience could take the wrong way. When two of her prophecies come true, people all around Oyo State place a huge, unconventional bet on a neighborhood football game. As a club that was demoted, WonderBoys faced overwhelming odds, and they manage to pull off an unlikely triumph.

Ajoke wakes up to a large group of new parishioners after the news went viral, and Dipo gains another 100,000 Instagram followers as a result. However, as political candidate Amani Olofaina (Seyi Awolowo), who fell for Ajoke’s trick, soon disturbs the quiet in the church, the cause-and-effect run of the plot began. Soon, Labake (played by Kehinde Bankole) enters and engages Ajoke in combat after spotting Ajoke on TV earlier that day. According to the storyline, Ajoke and Labake are sisters, and seven years ago, Ajoke fled with Labake’s money. The money was intended for investments by Labake in her future, which led to their sisterly animosity. However, the reason why they fought was because Labake, who was still carrying around the hurt from the past, couldn’t bear to lose more money to Ajoke as Hakeem, whose relationship to the family is unmentioned, placed a bet with the $300,000 that had been sent to him for their mother’s medical expenses.

Akinmolayan exhibits an entitled attitude prepared to place the blame elsewhere when the word circulated that the first forecasts were only happenstance and that there was a rabid crowd during the same wave. As soon as this problem involved some extremely dangerous characters, including Fogo Bombastic, a well-known street mafia lord who threatens to kill Ajoke and her nephew if her prophesy fails, Ajoke and Dipo immediately set out to solve it.

Analysis

Fond Nollywood memories prior to the age of extravagant costumes and high-tech cameras were stoked by Prophetess. It is not a flawless movie though. Far from it, and to be perfectly honest, it makes no effort to be. Prophetess is a melodramatic movie about melodramatic individuals, despite the fact that it contains probably an excessive amount of melodrama.

You might initially wonder why the movie continues to capitalize on the cliched dramatization of a religious practice of ‘white garment’ churches, but the plot goes to reveal credible themes touching tale of suffering, rejection, family, and salvation. The fact that Prophetess is about regular people, in our opinion, is what endeared it to the moviegoers the most.

Prophetess’ problem is that most of the humour appears to be an outcome of the performance, not the actual content of the movie. Though the performance is excellent, the lines are not up to par. The conversation might occasionally come out as being very commonplace and unoriginal. Although Prophetess has humour, it suffers from humour that is centred on the actors rather than the picture.

Plot

The plot was skillfully crafted to reflect a number of societal truths, including the themes of love and forgiveness within a family, religious sentiments that influence decision-making, employer-employee relationships, mob mentality, social media trolling, and sports fandom, by award-winning director Niyi Akinmolayan. It is also quite intriguing how the author gently highlighted the poor condition of our regional football clubs and the disregard for former players and football legends. Nollytrailers thought the intertwined storylines were insightful and well-integrated.

Casting and Acting

The cast of the film represented a diverse range of individuals from various backgrounds, with various aspirations, and leading various lives. We witnessed the difficulties and obstacles faced by actual people experiencing actual emotions while going about their daily lives. From the wealthy to the poor, tech-savvy to inept, educated to ignorant, the characters were not out of place and were discovered in their natural elements, right down to the finer points of their appearances and etiquette.

Nollytrailers would like to assume that the performers who portrayed each role did a better job of capturing the personality of the characters than anyone else could have. With Toyin Abraham playing the major role and actors like Kehinde Bankole and Lateef Adedimeji.

Set

The Prophetess chose a genuine and well-thought-out place; Ibadan has a long history. The director documented the city’s historical past by photographing prominent and noteworthy landmarks such as the Liberty Stadium, Mapo Hall, and a few more. The characters’ separate residences were also nicely chosen, with a clear portrayal of and differentiation between rural and urban areas.

Cinematography

Niyi, with this project, once again demonstrates that intriguing cinematography is not all about choice locations and beautiful landscape. The A-List filmmaker here displayed a strong command of image compositions and shots that effectively told the tale. The use of on-screen social network pop-ups spiced the story-telling – they were funny, extremely realistic, and added to the story’s growth.

Sound Design and Music

The uniqueness of this film’s musical creations was a joy to the ears. The invention of a character song for “Fogo Bombastic,” as well as the majority of the instrumentals used, was fantastic. At times, the music was a rich mash-up of well-known Yoruba songs. Some may argue that Yoruba people would like and relate to the music more as a result of this, however ethnicity is not a barrier to appreciating the mood generated by the music at various moments throughout the film.
It is also worth noting the sharp and clear sound production. Sounds that appeared to be routine, such as the crushing of pepper – a mannerism by one of the characters – were intensified for a greater impression.

Rating (4/5)

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Theme4

Screenwriting3.5

Visual Design4

Cinematography4

Editing4

Sound and Music4

Acting4

Directing4

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• Theme
• Screenwriting
• Visual Design
• Cinematography
• Editing
• Sound and Music
• Acting
• Directing