CJ ‘Fiery’ Obasi’s Mami Wata is a meticulously crafted film with the soul of true filmmaking in it. While it is worthy of the celebration it has had, is it truly a great movie?
A senior critic once explained why he stopped writing reviews of Nollywood films: there was just too much labour our directors put into making movies, oftentimes lacking the right equipment and resources. A good standpoint, I agree, because when we actually look at the landscape, the least we can say, budget costs and all, and the lack of support from the government, is that our directors are putting in work. His submission, I think, was because he finally became tired of the too many negative reviews he was writing up till then. Not much has changed in the last five years since Lionheart, the first Nollywood movie featured on Netflix, tried to shift the culture; to critique Nollywood today and demand range from it is to build a reputation as a serial complainer.
I do not care deeply for Nollywood at the moment. The avalanche of its recent output, since the leverage of Netflix and a reviving cinema culture in the post-pandemic years, has been a pandering to capitalism. Valid nonetheless, the industry remains a source of job creation; Nigeria’s philistinism and hardship doesn’t give room for art that is ‘high seriousness’ anyway. I believe, just as our music took time and finally arrived at where it is today, that Nollywood is also in a pre-Big-Bang phase, collecting cosmic dust...
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