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      A Painless THORN – by Moshood Fattah

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              Bola ‘Enigma’ Akanbi’s short film “Thorn” (2018) may not be piercing but its subject matter is a painful reminder of our society’s refusal to confront the dangers of implosions suffered by Mentally Displaced Persons. The film starts with a radio programme in a vehicle, evoking memories of the first scene in Tunde Kelani’s “Maami”. Just like the latter’s main character Kashi, Bola’s lead, Tony has daddy issues. However the problems that turned Kashi into a needy man who must fix his past to move on  have turned Tony into a Shiron ( Moonlight ); reinventing himself into something too strong to allow anyone guess that he was ever a victim. Whenever his past comes calling however, he doesn’t embrace it; He beats it back in (as seen in the way he turns off the radio when the on-air discussion veers into a conversation involving parental love). This emotional distancing could also explain why a grown man like him is still single. But all is not doom and gloom, Tony has done well for himself; he has his own car and a flat in a nice part of town. He is a quiet neighbour who comes home after a long day like any other person except that on this particular evening, trouble meets him at his door.  This is perhaps the most visually poignant part of the movie; Tony is in a well- lit hallway when disturbing noise from his neighbour’s apartment pushes him to knock on their door but when his neighbour opens up, his apartment is dark. Tony is drawn to it, out of concern (or curiosity perhaps) but quickly shut out before he can do anything. No sooner has he turned away do the noises resume and this time the lure of the situation gets too strong to resist. He gives into his rage and allows it push him into a dark place; *literally and metaphorically*. Everything moves very fast from here. Under the false impression that his neighbour had been beating his partner, he is triggered and his painful past floods his mind, provoking memories and emotions he has tried so hard to push down. Unfortunately his neighbour’s look and expressions don’t help matters as they are heavily reminiscent of his father’s, so when Tony moves to strangle his neighbour, there is no mens rea- he is only trying to stop the painful memories. The film predictably descends from here but sadly makes a mess on the way to a hurried ending. The director distances himself from Tony’s emotions, losing moments he could have used to build intensity and draw compassion for a character who doesn’t give much to be liked for. No one dies that easily, strangling the neighbour was a good opportunity to show the anger and pain in Tony’s eyes and the struggle/helplessness in his victim’s. Even if it is argued that Tony blacked-out from rage, his neighbour obviously didn’t. Of course Sambasa delivers post-murder realization well, unfortunately the camera is too busy dancing around and cutting away- in a style reminiscent of films from the industry’s VHS/DVD era- to allow the audience empathise with the living victim. Even the much lauded twist looks badly contrived on a second watch; did he pick up the DvD on the dinning table? If so, what did he now play on the TV? It’s also a big let down when Tony’s realization gets watered down by bad blocking and poor framing choices. The final picture of Tony coiled up like a baby is very reminiscent of James Dean as Jim Stark  (another character with parenting issues) in the final scene of Nicholas Ray’s “Rebel without a Cause”; both character’s having just witnessed death are thrown into a chasm of dark emotions but sadly for Tony, there’s no one to pick him up. Help never comes;  no police, no neighbours.  This film is a harsh reminder of the Nigerian reality where there isnt enough awareness on mental health in general, resulting in many victims being widely ignored and left to their own devices to sort themselves out because there are many other thorns to worry about on this crown called Nigeria. Suicide comes to mind.  Bola Enigma seems set to follow in -his boss- Kunle Afolayan’s foot steps and walk the path of stories cloaked in darkness and riddled with murders, or is too early to say? Perhaps he needs a few more films to find his voice. He would do himself good to develop his understanding of dialogue as he improves on what looks like an already decent knowledge of the camera. Nonetheless, Bola blows a decent tune on his first take (or is it) and hopefully he’ll be able to prove his competence in the “real world”. THORN wasn’t painful to watch at all. 6/10. http://filmratsclub.com/2019/01/19/thorn-bola-enigma/ Moshood Fattah, is an actor with degrees in Performing Arts from the Universities of Ilorin and Lagos. He is an environmentalist and proud father of three cats. He is an avid Jay-Z fan and has an incredible feet fetish.  

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      READING BARIGA SUGAR BY ‘CHUKWU MARTIN

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      BARIGA SUGAR- A FILM BY IFEOMA NKIRUKA CHUKWUOGO  THE TWIN EFFECT  Bariga Sugar (2016) is a short film (approx. 22 minutes) about the unfortunate story of Jamil(10) and Ese(8) who live with their promiscuous single mothers amidst the shelter of Madam Sugar’s brothel in Bariga (Hence the name Bariga Sugar),it captures the melt down in a supposed Puritanist society. Similarly patterned in its plot what through its origin in Voltaire’s 1759 novel Candide has become known as the Candide pattern for reading film.  The story pattern is where a naïve and innocent person finds his character in an unusual situation. This is the case of Jamil (Tunde Azeez) and Ese( Halimat Olanrewaju) signifiers of Innocence who find themselves in this cesspool of mortal sin. These two,nonetheless, find comfort in one another as friends after Jamil moves into the ‘neighbourhood’. However, in re-interpreting this film, I choose to propound the concept of the Twin effectas an approach to interpreting this visual image. Discussing under the Yoruba cultural belief of twins, the first born twin, whether  a boy or girl, is always called Taiwo, meaning  “having the first taste of the world”, whereas the second is named Kehinde, meaning “arriving after the other”.  (In this film, Jamil arrives second, meeting his soon-to-be-bestfriend Ese in ‘that’ world).  Although being born first Taiwo is considered the younger twin. His senior, Kehinde is supposed to send out his partner to see what the outside world looks like. As soon as Taiwo has given a signal by crying, Kehinde will follow. Kehinde is supposed to be more careful, more intelligent and more reflective, while Taiwo is believed to be more curious and adventurous, but also more non-chalant (Olaleye-Oruene, 1983, Stoll & Stoll, 1960). From the viewpoint of this film, Kehinde (Jamil) carries almost all the personalities listed above. Jamil is adventurous, intelligent, and curious, he intends take Ese on this path of sharing adventures and perhaps destiny. He teaches her to read, and to see the world in a better way. To become the Queen of Bariga Sugar becomes Ese’s dream ( what else could she have been anyway. Madam Sugar is the Alpha of what she’s known all her life ), and here comes Jamil with his “big” knowledge to bring Ese to see herself more or less as the “Queen of England” rather than the “Queen of Bariga Sugar”. Hopes and dreams live only a few weeks as Jamil is caught by the unfortunate ink of the writer’s dramatic weapon of tragedy- death, but hopefully Ese would grow to make their dreams come true, hereby making Jamil live on in her memory. Following events in the film’s narrative, we find the theme of SACRIFICE evident in the story, as often a thematic myth of twins in the Yoruba belief system, that a twin may give his life for the other. The Yorubas believe that twins share the same combined soul, when a newborn twin dies, the life of the other is imperiled because the balance of his soul has become seriously disturbed. Jamil (in the light of this theory is Kehinde) and his “chi” (igbo) “ori” (Yoruba) is negotiated to die in place of Ese.Here, Jamil dies to save Ese. We can ask; why was it not Ese who stepped on the nail? Why did Jamil bring them out this far just to look at an Anthill? And then Jamil says at the tail-end of the film“…it’s getting late, let’s go home”, and that look on his face like he knows what was to happen? Does this statement connote a deeper meaning? Perhaps it did, perhaps it didn’t, but Jamil gets to eat the maggot and go “home”. The concept of the Blue Doll The Ere Ibeji effigies are carved small wooden statues that stand as symbolic substitutes for the soul o f the deceased twins. When one or both of the twins died, an ibeji statue would be carved out in their memory. The parents would treat this statue as if they were the living children by singing to them as awell as feeding and caring for them. (Mobolaji, 1997). Although representing wooden babies, the deceased twin is not always said to be dead, rather, they are said to “have gone to the market “ or have travelled” in this case of Jamil’s death, Ese narrates to us that “he has gone to heaven”(Bariga Sugar, 19:04) The film opens with Ese playing with her blue doll, the only friend she’s got before Jamil’s arrival, and doesn’t end with her playing with it, perhaps if the film had ended with her playing with the doll, the concept of the ibeji statue as observed above would have been powerfully concretized to symbolize Jamil’s soul. Nevertheless, Jamil lives on through Ese.      

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