Ayinla

Ayinla is inspired by the life of Apala music legend Ayinla Omowura. Set in 1970s Abeokuta, the film charts his rise in the local, national, and international music scenes and the tribulations and ultimate tragedy that accompany his fiery character.

Whilst this film is a dramatized story about Ayinla, it starts with a number of home-video style interviews from local politicians and his friends. These are all real people talking, not actors, and their interviews are used to set up the importance of Ayinla. He’s an artist whose renown never hit the astronomical highs of Fela Kuti or King Sunny Ade, but with these interviews and the dramatized story of his life, director, and fellow Abeokuta resident, Tunde Kelani shows he’s worthy of international recognition.

The highlight of Ayinla is the music. Whilst not all of the lyrics are subtitled, you can tell that Ayinla was a playful and political lyricist from the songs that are. They’re all cut into the movie pretty smoothly and give the film the star soundtrack to promote his legacy. Kelani also shoots Abeokuta beautifully, making it appear to be a picturesque tropical city with greenery and Ulumo Rock dominating the drone shots. Another plus is that the entire film is shot in Yoruba, staying true to the region the film is based in, instead of opting for English in an attempt to appeal to an international audience.

The only downsides of this movie is that it doesn’t feel complete. It feels more like a bunch of episodes of Ayinla’s life that have been pieced together. The only thin plot-line is that of Ayinla preparing for his trip to London, but even this only begins to guide the story in the final part of the movie. As pointed out by Vivian Nneka Nwajiaku for afrocritik the film also introduces a lot of plot points that are never developed – such as Ayinla’s pregnant wife. Luckily the music for the most part covers up for the lack of plot.

For anyone into Nigerian music, or biopic style movies on making it in the music industry, Ayinla is worth a watch. It’s a decent tribute to both Ayinla Omowura and Abeokuta, the colorful city that both the director and the music star share.


Check back to our Pan African Film Festival 2022 page for more reviews coming out of the 30th edition of the festival.

Tales of the Accidental City

Four people from different sides of Nairobi join a court-ordered anger management class with Counsellor Rose in Tales of the Accidental City. They each bring their own stories and banter to the Zoom call to create a quick one-location comedic overview of Nairobi society.

As called out in the opening titles, Tales of the Accidental City was originally created for the stage. It was adapted for film following the start of COVID-19 as the pandemic forced theaters to shut. It still resembles a play, as the focus is on the conversation and takes place completely in the single ‘location’ of a Zoom call. However, one benefit of converting Tales of the Accidental City for film is that all viewers are close enough to see the actors facial expressions. These are crucial for communicating the humor of the film which relies on the quick banter between characters. Without the close-ups we wouldn’t be able to see clearly how each of the character’s react to each other.

The humor seems to be built around local stereotypes with each of the 5 characters (including Counsellor Rose) representing a different part of Nairobi society. Louis represents the political elite, and fulfills the snobby, self-important stereotype. Counsellor Rose represents the Kenyan version of the cultural appropriating white hippie with Buddha poster on her wall and doing yoga to meditative music and candles. Jacinda’s character seems to be mocking the devout Christians of the middle class whilst Diana and Sarah represent the mothers and youth of the working class. Each character is exaggerated through their manner and their zoom backgrounds to create the associations with the stereotypes. Their equally flowing banter then makes fun of each of them, and the segments of Nairobi society they belong to.

If you’re looking for a simple Kenyan comedy, Tales of the Accidental City is worth a watch. Whilst the film is confined to the Zoom meeting room, it playfully makes fun of a few stereotypes of the city, giving the audience a few laughs and a small understanding of Nairobi society.


Check back to our Pan African Film Festival 2022 page for more reviews coming out of the 30th edition of the festival.

Hairareb

Hairareb follows the relationship between Hairareb, a middle-aged farmer, and Innis, his new bride. As they begin to get comfortable with their new life together, the secrets behind their marriage and from their past lives roll out into the open, creating a whirlwind of trouble for their budding relationship. Can they weather the storm, or will they fall back to the mistakes they made in the past?

There’s a lot going on in the opening scenes of the movie. The opening scene shows a man riding a horse into the sunset accompanied by a loud soundtrack and voiceover like a Hollywood Western. It introduces us to Hairareb’s narrative voice. The next shows a young man unlocking a chest of someone’s mementos. It’s not clear whose mementos or how he’s related to them. The film doesn’t give too many clues in the next few scenes either as it jumps straight to Hairareb and Innis’ wedding. From there, the jumping back and forth stops for a while, until the film delves into the two main character’s past lives, which by this point at least, helps to clear up some of the confusion from the start of the film and provide a bit of character development. However, for the most part, Hairareb feels unfocused. The drought, relationships, character backstories, and life in rural Namibia are all sacrificed for the sake of creating domestic melodrama, leaving the film feeling pretty hollow.

As you’ll notice from the start, this is a domestic melodrama. The loud soundtrack and overwrought narrative voice give that away. The use of a narrator feels a bit unnecessary at times, as everything Hairareb says could be built into a more natural script. It feels like it has been included to cut corners in the character building and plot to advance the plot quicker. It’s also always full of writing that feels a bit overdone, especially when it’s read alongside an overbearing soundtrack that doesn’t leave anything to the imagination. The soundtrack also often gives away the direction of the scenes before they’re acted out. Upbeat musical interludes play a few scenes before the newlyweds are happy and the villains are given away before the reveals by the loud ominous soundtrack accompanying their face on screen. A little more subtlety may have created a bigger surprise for these reveals, however, viewers used to melodramas may not be as put off by these moments as it’s all part of the fun.

The language choices were also interesting. Whilst the film was mostly shot in English, there were some moments where the cast started speaking the indigenous Khoekhoe language. Presumably English was chosen for the film’s marketability abroad, but why not then just run the whole film in English for this reason? The Khoekhoegowab words seemed to be included randomly and not for certain characters or moments so it wasn’t clear why they were included. If the director wanted to include the language, it would have been great to have used Khoekhoe throughout the movie. I don’t believe it would have made much of a difference to the international audience viewing it and maybe the actors would have been more comfortable using it.

Overall, if you’re looking for a Namibian domestic melodrama, you’ve come to the right place. Every scene of Hairareb is filled with it, from the music to the relationship reveals. There’s also some beautifully framed shots of rural Namibia to showcase the landscape. However, if you’re not familiar with the domestic melodrama genre you’ll probably find this example overdone and lacking in substance.


Check back to our Pan African Film Festival 2022 page for more reviews coming out of the 30th edition of the festival.


In 2021 there were an estimated 218,062 attempted crossings of the Mediterranean Sea from Northern Africa and Turkey to Europe. Whilst some make it undetected, many succumb to the perilous journey or are captured by border patrols and sent back to Africa. Djibi made the crossing 10 years ago. But he’s returned to Burkina after 10 years of toiling away in Italy. He knows how hard the crossing was and has paid the price of living far away from home. But, he’s returned home with full pockets and a mission to train a group of 6 young people to make the crossing to Europe.

You’d expect a drama called The Crossing that focuses on the often tragic Africa to Europe migration route would be tough to watch as African film’s that focus on the route usually contain tragedy – see The Pirogue, Atlantiques, or Tenere. However, The Crossing largely runs against expectations. Thanks to light humor and a leisurely pace, the movie is an easy to watch dramedy.

The relaxed tone of the movie is clear from the start as Djibi returns home to a warm welcome from his old friend Pronto. The camera follows them as Pronto tours Djibi around the city, introducing to his friends and neighbors. There’s no soundtrack, and very little sound from their environment, which gives the film a comforting silence that is only covered by their conversation. Each shot also seems to linger slightly longer than the length of their conversations, giving the viewer a bit of dead time for contemplation. Both these techniques emphasize Djibi’s immediate comfort back in Burkina Faso and set us at ease for the humor to come in the rest of the film.

The Crossing largely plays out as a hang-out movie from here as the focus turns to the 6 youngsters in training and the various tasks that Djibi sets for them that range from swimming lessons to provoking a local gang. Some scenes contain messages, but they never feel preachy or out of place. Plus, the overall message is a good pro-African one, even if film still feels strongly linked to Europe in its language (it’s mostly French). So if you’re looking for an African movie that looks at migration with a touch of humor, try The Crossing.


Check back to our Pan African Film Festival 2022 page for more reviews coming out of the 30th edition of the festival.

For the first time in my life, I watched an Indian Blockbuster in a cinema. Whilst it wasn’t the full experience I had imagined, the cinema is the only place you should see RRR‘s bombastic stunts and melodramatic bromance.


The Experience

In hindsight, choosing to watch RRR as a Sunday matinee wasn’t the best choice. The Cinemark 18 + XD in Los Angeles was almost as empty as the mall it sits within, which is itself a forgotten mall, across the 405 from the much more popular Fox Hills Westfield Mall. There’s no real need for this mall or the Cinemark itself, as the theater chain has since built a more modern location in Playa Vista just 2 miles away. However, the distinguishing factor of this Cinemark location is that it has become the only theater on the West Side of Los Angeles (Cinemark or otherwise) that consistently screens new Indian releases each week. So if you want to watch Indian films in the city on the big screen and don’t reside in the Valleys or the O.C., this is your best option.

The theater was screening RRR in each of the languages it had dialogue specially written for (Telugu, Hindi, and Tamil), but as Telugu was the original production, we went for that screening. I’m not sure how widely each of the languages are spoken in Los Angeles, so not sure if the Tamil or Hindi screenings might have been more busy, but the Telugu Sunday matinee screening was almost empty. There were just a few families with toddlers and infants for company. As a result, we never heard an audience response to the movie, apart from applause at the end. The only sounds coming from the audience that we could hear were from the kids’ tablets that their parents had given them after they announced they wanted to go home around 30 minutes before the intermission (this film is not for everyone). However, this was never much of a problem for us, because, to the probable detriment to our ears, this film was blasted through the speakers at a noticeably higher decibel level than your typical Hollywood screening. The loud but empty cinema made it feel like we’d arrived early to a music concert. With a crowd, this would have been special.


The FIlm

Despite the small crowd, the film itself was completely at home on the big screen. It’s an action film that the Superhero addicted Hollywood studios have become afraid to make: a completely original story with a big budget. But to be fair to Hollywood, this film wasn’t made by just anyone. It was made by S.S. Rajamouli, one of the biggest name directors in India. He’s the guy that made the #2 and #8 highest grossing Indian films in Baahubali 1 and 2.

Costing $72M, RRR is the second most expensive Indian film ever made (behind S. Shankar’s 2.0). The high budget is evident in the incredible action scenes and CGI – which, whilst still slightly behind the quality of the Hollywood CGI, already looks much better than the Baahubali films. If this is what $72M makes, imagine what the budget of the $356M Avengers Endgame could produce. That is if you can imagine anything being more action-packed and epic than RRR.

There’s so many big moments in this film. It starts with three hard-hitting chapters which introduce ‘The Story,’ ‘The Fire,’ and ‘The Water.’ The Story is the premise – a child from rural India gets ‘bought’ by the English colonial governor to the heart-break of their mother and village. The Fire is the introduction to our villain – a loyal and determined member of the colonial police that single handedly takes on an entire mob of around 1,000 people in one of the film’s best action scenes. The Water introduces us to the kidnapped girls hope at rescue – a man from the forest that protects those that inhabit it. He demonstrates his action chops by taking down a tiger. Even though each of these scenes hits hard and gives you an adrenaline shot to kick start this 3 hour action bromance, neither are the film’s best action scenes. There are just too many action scenes to highlight, which we’ll leave for you to experience.

The only moments that took me out of the zone were the intermission and the ‘Naatu Naatu’ dance scene which both doesn’t fit the period or the serious action/cheesy tone that the film had already established. Plus the nod to Black culture by tokenizing a Black drummer (the only Black character in the film) just feels awkward. But luckily the film quickly resumes the melodrama and action pretty soon after both scenes to build the adrenaline and emotional connection back up. This is the ultimate ‘Theme Park‘ movie that needs to be seen on the big screen.


The Future

Before the pandemic, there was a John Woo double feature at The Aero in Santa Monica. It featured The Killer and Hardboiled, two stylish (and often cheesy) classics of the action-film genre. They’re both incredibly fun films to watch, and it was even more fun to watch them with a full audience that responded to the film’s iconic moment with cheers and shouts of appreciation. I believe S.S. Rajamouli deserves the same love that The Aero afforded John Woo. It may sound strange saying this as S.S. Rajamouli is a hugely popular director around the world that has drawn a relatively massive box-office total. But, whilst his films are massive in India, they haven’t found much of a cross-over audience amongst film fans in the U.S. Like John Woo, his films are iconic, melodramatic, action films that are best experienced with friends or a crowd. They should be seen by all action and superhero film fans, but I’ll be happy if they manage to form a cult corner like John Woo managed to do, and screen to sell-out shows in Art-House cinemas in the not too distant future.