January 2, 2024

This is an attempt to write about a film I had high expectations for, but with almost every Nollywood film we are reminded to lower those expectations so that we are not disappointed. However, with Breath of Life, I refused to lower my expectations, as it is supposed to be an important film. A friend once said that “lowering expectations is harmful, you need the pressure to attain mastery.” and I agree with him. As I consider my thoughts, I ask myself if I should evaluate the film based on what it intends to do rather than what I think it should have done. I choose to play around with both ideas, however rough they might appear. Breath of Life was released on December 15, 2023, as an Amazon Prime Video original film, under MGM and Nemsia Films with Derin Adeyokunnu as executive producer and produced by Eku Edewor. It is the third feature I’d be watching from Director BB Sasore after Banana Island Ghost (2017), and God Calling (2018). “Breath of Life” is about faith, sacrifice, finding purpose, healing, and redemption. Redemption is a recurring theme in these films and how the characters try to deal with loss and their faith. The trinity of the plot is around the Man, the Church, & his God. I’m carrying my months-old son through the doors as I start with the film, phone in hand. I’m careful not to wake him up but I fail. He just stares at the screen, seriously like a critic. However, this story is not about him, it’s about Reverend Ayodele Timilehin Johnson (March 30th, 1935 – June 12th, 2023). When the film opens, we see old man Elijah in a wheelchair narrating in his younger voice about his adopted father – Reverend Timilehin. Young Timilehin is played efficiently by Demola Adedoyin. He is described as a genius, a man who spoke 16 languages. For fun he would rewrite Holy Books in different languages, he was the highest honoured Cadet in Entry Class of Her Majesty’s Navy, and he was also one of the youngest people to ever become a member of Clergy in the Great Church of England, he’s also a record breaker who could stay underwater for almost an hour.  He decided to return home to Nigeria to serve God as a clergyman and get familiar with the community after the death of his father. Rev. Timilehin was special. Now married to a beautiful wife (Eku Edewor) who has given him a daughter, they are going to be living in his mansion, happily ever after. He even fixed up the church in his community (even though the characters go on to say he built the church). He is here to stay. But there’s a bad man in the community, he is called Baby Fire (Sambasa Nzeribe). They say he is notorious for terrorizing small towns. He loves nothing more than to “see things burn”, but all through his screen time I don’t feel it. On the happiest day in the town, Baby Fire rains down fire on the people buying and selling at a fair. They open fire and spray bullets on one man, killing him in slow motion. Rev. Timi is a witness.   There’s a church meeting. Members are afraid to testify that it was Baby Fire who carried out this madness, but Rev. Timi is willing to bear witness in court. He plans to point the finger. His wife is not happy about this. He assures her that all is well, but it is not. In what was a very brief court sitting, Baby Fire is discharged and acquitted without struggle. It’s a corrupt system. Baby Fire is the colonialist’s stooge. He is their boy, paid by “leftover colonials who used him to terminate troublesome elements”. Now there’s going to be trouble for Rev. Timi. Baby Fire and his gang lurk. Rev. Timi decides to send his wife and daughter out of town for safety while he soldiers the town and be the messiah. “I didn’t marry a martyr, you better come home to me”. They leave. But Baby Fire is way ahead of the plan. He and his goons block the road. Tragedy is about to hit. We know what is coming and we are prepared for it. No suspense here. Baby Fire is a killer and he’s about to make Rev. Timi watch his wife and daughter burn. Rev. Timi must be reminded that to be a messiah, a merciless crucifixion is required. It’ll be a sin not to feel the texture of the coming scene. I’m supposed to be in hell for the next few minutes as the pain, and the screams rent the air, as Rev. Timi would watch his wife & daughter burn, trapped inside his car. It is supposed to be a big scene filled with enough intensity to make my day miserable. It’s supposed to give us a villain that we should hate. But this pivotal scene appears as mere decoration and doesn’t challenge imagination. I was not moved by Sambasa Nzeribe’s performance as Baby Fire, I had no reason to be. I had no pity for Rev. Timi either. I wasn’t drawn in and allowed the pleasure to feel his pain. A tragedy that does not elicit fear and pity fails to meet its purpose. I believe very much in narrative freedom but when a genre takes a form some elements are required to help produce the needed effect, a catharsis. Since we’re invited to the story from Elijah’s point of view, his narration is a recount of what he heard & witnessed, so the time we’re supposed to spend with Rev. Timi as a character in grief is lost. Nevertheless, I learn soon enough that this quick brushstroke narrative is only a bait inviting me to partake in an even bigger story, that something bigger is ahead of us. Rev. Timi tries to kill himself without success. God evidently has a bigger plan