Like every other film industry, Nollywood has a broad range of movies. From the low-budget movies with minimal investment in storytelling, casting, the script and location to more expensive movies with eye-watering budgets – by Nigerian standards. What seems missing to me a lot of times, is a correspondent/proportional improvement in quality due to an increase in investment. And when I say quality, I don’t just mean in sound and cinematography which have experienced massive improvements, I mean in set design, in storytelling, in character development and consequently in the ability to elicit a wide range of emotions from the audience.
I could probably go weeks without watching a movie but don’t let that deter you from seeing me as a reputable movie critic. One could argue that I actually have a more discerning eye because I choose quality over quantity. And so, with all that in mind, let’s talk about Shanty Town.
Shanty Town portrays life in a Lagos slum through the eyes of the oppressor (the slumlord, Scar; the chief he reports to, Chief Fernandez “RMD” or the brothel madam depending on the episode) and the oppressed (the brothel madam, the sex workers she’s in charge of or the slum inhabitants who have no say over the ruthlessness and impunity that runs through their streets).
Let me start by saying that, Nse Ikpe-Etim can do no wrong to me. She is a goddess and I love to see her on screen. The scenes with her character, Mama T and Inem played by Ini Edo speaking left me enthralled because yes to portraying languages that are not Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo!
Here’s my hot take: Ini Edo has been in the movie game for a while, she’s beautiful and her body is amazing but there is no reason why she should still, in 2023, be playing characters that are in their late twenties. I found this miscasting so jarring and caught myself multiple times trying to suspend belief to really enjoy the movie and believe in the story being told. The continued insistence to utilize the same group of 10-15 actors not only robs opportunities from a deserving crop of up-and-comers but also does the audience a disservice in instances such as this.
I’ve found that Nollywood movies generally struggle with properly developing and staying true to character arcs, Shanty Town was not immune from this weakness. Take Mercy Eke’s “Jackie” for instance, a Shanty Town sex worker who has finally saved enough money to pay Scar for her freedom. I absolutely cannot believe that after working under him for that long, witnessing his brutality and the loyalty of his workers, she would have a taxi driver from the area drop her off at her final location and not be suspicious when the car stopped in the middle of a lonely road??
Can we pause to talk about Scar, played by Chidi Mokeme for a second? Let’s give this multilingual king his flowers because he kept me guessing about what language he would surprise us with next. I will say though that his motivations and consequently, some of his decisions confused me. Why did he save Inem when she was escaping with her mum on the boat at the beginning of the movie? Was his relationship with her one of trust and an unhealthy friendship? Did he love her? So much was unclear that it was hard to anticipate or accept his decisions, especially towards the end of the movie. It’s easy to understand a ruthless character making terrible decisions for love whether towards a family member, romantic partner or friend. That context was missing from the relationship between Inem and Scar and it made it difficult to place them.
I need someone to explain the need for the auction scene. No, like really in the comments please help me because why did I need 10 minutes of bum-bum shaking to tell me that Chief Fernandez is a yeye man?
Finally, I need Nollywood police officers to stop mirandizing alleged criminals. In the U.S., people do have the right to remain silent and the right to an attorney, anything they say will be used against them in court and if they don’t have a lawyer one will be appointed to them. Nigeria, unfortunately, does not offer those same privileges so let’s imitate them with wisdom. Hollywood provides America with some of the best PR it could ever want but it looks to stay true to life in America by and large (well except the whole romanticization of racism, slavery, systemic oppression of large groups of people, copaganda etc) so how about we learn to do the same and actually invest in researching the realities of our country for more grounded portrayals and in so doing, maybe facilitate change.
