I
t has always seemed to me that an individual who has demonstrated a level of excellence in one creative field can reproduce that excellence in a different creative field. They just need to be able to spot and afford the best hands. The great Nigerian comedian Basketmouth has proven my theory. As executive producer of A Ghetto Love Story, he has gotten acclaimed director Daniel Oriahi to make a fine film with a macabre twist.
For most of the film, we follow the happenings in a low-income neighbourhood in Lagos, where two persons are of particular interest. These two persons are Obinna (Akah Nnani) and Stella (a remarkable Beverly Osu).
They are young, in love, and, as expected, get into the problems that lovers at that stage get into. At one point, the girl’s mother (Patience Ozokwor), notices their shenanigans on the street and the boy has to flee her attentions. Subsequently, the girl gets punished and reminded of her duties as a daughter of the household: she should be focused on her education not on romance. But, as the years roll by, it turns out that maybe Obinna’s designs should be less feared than what happens when the naive acquires an extra-curricular education.
Efiko Score: 8.7/10. Basketmouth and Daniel Oriahi have made a superb Nollywood film about Nigerian love and poverty.
A Ghetto Love Story covers an entire neighbourhood over several years, so there are a reasonable number of supporting players, including a local hairdresser (played quite well by reality star Dorathy Bachor), Obinna’s womanising friend, and a neighbourhood businessman (played by Basketmouth) whose services are primarily concerned with waste from soakaways.
Stella is about to go to school, which as everyone knows is famous for being a hotbed of sexual provocations and financial temptations. Naturally, she gets there and faces the usual seductions, while Obinna, her boyfriend back home, hustles to send her whatever cash he manages to earn.
A penurious workman boyfriend sending cash to his student girlfriend was once so popular a configuration in the Nigerian public’s imagination—and perhaps reality—that it was a cliché. You still hear variations of the theme now, but its heyday has passed enough for A Ghetto Love Story to arrive with freshness. The film’s only flaw comes from the usually astute actor Femi Jacobs who plays a wealthy man ushering in a moment of devastation. He adopts a petulant manner for a mature character, which just doesn’t work.
The film recovers from that misstep; Stella doesn’t. Soon, she is home with her longsuffering boyfriend. But the birds have flown, even if the lovebirds are oblivious. For one, the girl has changed. She has seen the good life. But the boy has only gotten older without his material conditions changing. This, too, is a famous configuration.
On the internet and away from it, the boy who doesn’t generate the goods as fast as his girl grows a taste for it is always in peril. This isn’t a film that departs from that concept but the screenplay (by Victoria Eze) has a twist coming.
When this twist arrives, unlike so many other Nollywood films over the years, it feels earned. And when the final few minutes are over, you may want to look again at the film’s title. Sure, there is love in this story that’s set in the Lagos ghetto. But that love isn’t to be found among the persons you assumed.
