Last week agreed to analyze a movie with Sharon Ooja as one of the actors, we had a variety of options and we’re happy to announce that we chose Oloture (phew!) Thanks to everyone who participated in picking this out, I really appreciate it. Now to the movie in our hands, OLOTURE is about an undercover reporter who becomes overly desperate to get to the end of human trafficking. She risks her life, relationships, and common sense while trying to get fish out the root cause of human trafficking. There’s a lot to talk about this movie but I’ll just restrict this review to three parts,

* Themes

* Best Impressions

* Ace Actors

  I love to talk about the themes of a movie because I believe that every movie has a motive, a message that entails the totality of beliefs that the producers and writers are trying to pass across to the public. One theme that I think is obvious is

* Greener Pasture Craze

Yeah, this is when the women thought that the ‘spec’ life that they need is somewhere in Europe and it is sickening ‘cause most Nigerians would rather go to Europe on a bicycle than believe that Nigeria has anything to offer. I don’t blame them either but in this case, these women did not have anything legitimate doing, it’s one thing to expect more from Nigeria when you’re doing something legitimate and it’s another to whine about the country while doing nothing that brings value to the table. These women, later on, had an all-expense-paid drive to the city of doom in the end.

* Predator and Prey Cycle

‘You gats accept everything wey big man do you as work experience and lesson. Nothing wey you fit take big man do’ – Chuks

Even Chuks, an outdated pimp who has lost all relevance in the real world understood the deficiency of his profession. Oloture makes it quite obvious that human trafficking is a jungle where every predator takes orders from higher predators to avoid a gruesome death. The last on the ladder is the likes of Blessing with no one else in the world to look up to apart from her psychopath boyfriend and pimp, Chuks, next we have Chuks himself, next is the likes of Alero who’s a pimp but with the right connections and it goes on and on like that. Not just human trafficking but the criminal world in its totality is not a place to dabble around in if you’re too low in the hierarchy of power.

* Inefficiency of the Nigerian Police Force

It’s no news that Nigerians would rather report gross injustice committed against them to Lucifer than to the Nigerian Police. When a reporter who’s undercover for the good of the Nigerian citizens did not even have guaranteed police protection, what’s the point of having policemen in the first place? Oloture knew the story was too dangerous to complete but she was blinded by her revenge and grief and lost common sense.

Even when she was at the border of Nigeria, she was chased and beaten up in broad daylight with policemen and immigration officers watching as they carried her away. Hopefully, the Nigerian Police would step up and become the giants that they were created to be and stop being dogs with latches controlled by men with fat suitcases.

Now to my best impressions in the movie. I loved the Vintage Music, it brought in the Ajegunle flavor that it wanted to portray, the sound was top notch too. I liked the Setting, the uncompleted house where the prostitutes paid weekly rent was sprawled with women underpants and street traders selling Ewa Agoyin on one side and others selling Bread and Butter on the other. The interior of the house had many rooms with cheap posters and stickers all over the peeling walls together with one wacky television and old furniture. The setting showed that the crew paid close attention to details.

The Language was overly impressive, it was majorly based on profound Pidgin English, English language, and one indigenous language that I can’t quite place whether it’s Benin or Benue native language. It was brilliant and I was impressed by it too.

We move on to the best actors ;

* Sharon Ooja as Oloture

Sharon Ooja obviously put in the work in this project, she defied most of the roles she took before this one. The way she was able to man both characters, Oloture, the refined reporter, and Ehi, the underbaked runs girl, was a job well done for me. The accent change from hard-core pidgin to top-notch English and then to the native language is something that I know would have cost so much hard work and consistency.

* Omoni Oboli as Alero

Omoni Oboli as usual, brought a different version of herself, our very own Forza speciale. Alero is a heartless and greedy pimp who sells off women to other men, extorts a whooping sum of 1,200 dollars from each of them before transporting them illegally. Omoni did well to deliver this character flawlessly.

* Omowunmi Dada as Linda

I love the originality and grit that Omowunmi brought to the screen, Linda was a friend of Ehi who was also a prostitute that wanted to move out to Europe for a better life with her sister. Dada was able to have a hold on the character, the dexterity that she put into the role was commendable too.

* Sambasa Nzeribe as Victor

First off, I believe that the tenacity that this guy brings all the time to the screen should be studied. In fact, he perfectly wore this role and delivered it properly. Victor is a thug in the trafficking business that has the responsibility to keep the girls in check and to make sure they are transported successfully.

All in all, Oloture is worth your time, most people don’t agree with this cause it’s a tragedy but a novel tragedy like this one is a job well done on every side. It’s an 85% for me and nahhh, there would be no sequel as confirmed by the movie director, Kenneth Gyang. That’s a wrap for Oloture review, thanks for reading up to this point, I’ll love to see your comments too and if you haven’t seen this movie yet then you should ASAP.

The Nostalgic Pen.