[blockquote align=”centre” author=”EfikoScore: 6.5/10″ style=”font-size: 30px”] Domestic violence meets coming-of-age tale in Courage Obayuwana’s moving debut feature, featuring a forceful lead performance. [/blockquote]
Kill Boro tells a story that unfolds in the coastal villages of Rivers State, a place where arms bearing is about as comforting as the sight of bole and fish. Boro (Philip Asaya) is an ex-militant of the Niger Delta looking to put the gun-toting life behind him but a failing car mechanic business and a mountain of debts frustrates his efforts. At home, he visits violence on his family, leading his young son, Elijah (Kosisochukwu Ogburoche), to believe that the best way to save his mother, Boma (Ini Dima-Okojie), and his unborn sibling is to place a hit on the man troubling them.
Already, Elijah has joined a gang. He is the youngest member of Bossman Atemie’s gang where, along with older colleagues, Denzel (Michael Dappa) and Lyd (Blessing Uzero), he must stave off the territorial incursions of Jaguar (Yibo Koko), a ganglord from across the river. He might not be allowed to bear arms, but Elijah knows who to go to for his peculiar order.
As Elijah, Ogburoche is the centre of this film. But Asaya gives the most compelling portrayal. He becomes Boro. Slammed with evidence of his failings, he is a prideful man swaggering, like Coriolanus, towards tragedy. Asaya produces a performance that forces the viewer to wait with baited breath for his next explosion of violence. But be on the lookout for when he works softer charms. It is hard to not be so swept away by this storm of a man.
And what actor better than Dima-Okojie could play opposite him, giving us a wife bruised and battered in mind and body, but who must yet hold her head high, firm in the belief that somewhere within the calcified ruins of her husband lies a better man? Her Boma is nigh on helpless against Boro’s sheer physicality, but she towers above him in spirit.
Is Nollywood finally ready to make great use of Gregory Ojefua‘s talents, as glimpsed all those years ago in the Tolu Ajayi short film The Encounter? As Bossman Atemie, he must wield power with restraint and his performance reflects his role. That restraint is perhaps why Uzero and Dappa get the chance to shine.
Kill Boro is not without flaws, the bulk of them lying in the backstories of the characters. We are called to believe that the man Boma fell in love with cut an impressive moral figure, but glimpses of him in the past contradict that portrait. There is also the hint of a love triangle that can only be thought of as the product of frivolous writing. And one notable turn is sapped of dramatic heft by being framed as a flashback.
The action, which takes place outside the usual Lagos setting, is captured by Motheo Moeng, whose lens finds riveting visuals in this coming-of-age tale. As the first-time director of the fourth of a series of 12 films to be released by Natives Filmworks, Courage Obayuwana has made a film with heart and thrills.
