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 for his life, and the storytellers like God have a bigger plan for us.

Please don’t try to kill yourself. God’s will for you is not always like Rev. Timi’s.

35 years later, in a memorable reveal, we see Wale Ojo as an older Rev. Timi. His sad eyes tell us he’s still carrying a weight of pain. We soon see the narrator, Elijah (Chimezie Imo). Chimezie looks the part as he rides innocently into the scene. He is here on a mission. He is the angel in guise sent to revive Rev. Timi’s faith. His arc is the big plan we have been waiting for.

The film makes the mistake of making Mr. Timi and Elijah into friends very quickly – an egg-cooking test doesn’t cut it. Elijah keeps his distance, careful and patient, a bit fearful of the “mad” impenetrable Reverend, and very afraid of what might happen to him if he stays with this ex-clergyman who has turned from God, but Elijah’s faith is not threatened. Spirituality can be an alluring thing to explore in film but “Breath of Life” has no interest in engaging its audience on that personal level. The screenplay reduces what could have been a complex character study and manages to be too safe and sometimes too off-putting for its own good, reducing the effort of the cinematography, the production design, and the performance of its actors.

BB Sasore’s “Breath of Life ” takes Rev. Timi and Elijah and places them in a blend of two genres. There’s the coming-of-age in which an older man teaches a younger one about life, and the younger man must inevitably change his master’s heart and in this case, help mend his relationship with God. Elijah falls in love with Anna (Genoveva Umeh) who “doesn’t do the bible thing”.  She’s the daughter of a wealthy businessman (Sam Dede) who soon becomes the hindering block to Elijah’s mission to revive the church. You see, Elijah has reopened the church and is on a mission to save the church which is a state property and has an unpaid land use charge that has accrued to a large amount which Anna’s father has paid, so technically the land belongs to him. Elijah is given 90 days to pay 49 million or vacate the church. Again, the film goes hunting for scraps.

“Breath of Life” doesn’t acknowledge the power of its hero story and goes fishing into the half-baked relationship between Elijah and Anna, when a more convincing love story needed to be built between Elijah and Timi. So, when this happens, when Timi makes the big sacrifice for Elijah, the moments we are left to remember between them are the cliche trailer moments. Even when Anna confronts Rev. Timi about helping Elijah’s mission to save the church, her points to help Elijah are as unusable as the moments they’ve shared.  For me to care much, they must portray the full dimensions of the internal world before escaping to the beauty of the exterior. Why should I care about saving a church whose history or members we don’t care about? The church has not been established as a character enough for us to care about the need for her resurrection, Elijah’s character is not seen doing any work. His effect on the church and its members should be important but the storytellers don’t care for us to see it.

“It took all night but I found that damned Bible Verse” – Elijah.

In an interview, Eku also hinted that the story’s theme of faith intertwines closely with the recurring theme of love, stating, “God is love, and where you find God, you find love.” The irony of this statement is that God has no place in the core of this story. The film doesn’t make a case or show us what the love of God truly is. After all is said and done, it is clear that BB Sasore and the team wanted to make a big picture with more attention to scale rather than focus on the big story.

However, the film has received numerous reactions from its audience. Here are some from some members of the Film Rats community:

“I think it’s quite easy to see why it would make people cry. For one, it’s a faith story. The story alludes to the redeeming power of God and faith. It’s about loss and healing. It’s a love story. It has an aspirational tone that Nigerians aren’t probably very familiar with. These are good elements for tear jerkers. My sole issue with the film is the story structure. I feel the story is packed with too many subplots and elements. Otherwise, I think it’s a good holiday film that does its job”

“It felt like a director’s movie. Someone eager to show off his style of storytelling. A trap or not, it succeeded in curating an experience”

“The problem is tone. Didn’t know what genre it was”

 “I asked some people who liked the movies, and audience members if they would watch it again (Breath of Life), and they said no but they like the movie.”

“Also, for a film that set up the house master’s character as someone who wants to serve God, only for him to get Aquaman’s heart and start gallivanting all over the globe. Got house helpers to join them in the house too. He did nothing related to church after getting that heart. Rubbed me off wrong”.

“What is his place as a hero? Hero to whom? To what cause? Before it needed saving, what did the Church mean? What turnaround, what result, what immeasurable change was recorded when he saved the Church?”

“There’s something about the editing and cinematography that gives a breath of life to an otherwise dead story. Proud of what the filmmakers were able to accomplish. It’s not an emotional experience…at least not for me. It’s like reading a picture book. It’s glossy and cute, and you remember it as that cute thing”