"The "Nigerian dream" is to escape Nigeria." 


If a movie could summarize itself in a sentence, this would be Eyimofe's profound statement, spoken on 16mm grainy film. A diptych title that wastes no time in visually expressing intent.

 On a black screen, the word "Spain" appears inconspicuously at the bottom, almost as if intended to go unseen. The titular character is making plans to flee the corruption and decadence of Nigeria, with its greedy senators and a perpetual shortage of electricity, for the saner climes of Europe. He tries to make his plans surreptitiously; a common practice by Nigerians who often keep plans to emigrate a secret until they have finally escaped. 

But life in Lagos, Nigeria is like a maze of electric wires in a junction box bound to shock anyone who navigates its dirty, narrow alleys. It's a story rare in Nigerian cinema. In a film industry that puts out thousands of home movies a year and out-produces Hollywood by some distance, relatively few of these commercially and comic-minded movies (often shot in a matter of weeks on very low budgets), travel far out of Africa and get international arthouse attention. 

Eyimofe is clearly a different piece of cake. It is a film artistically and realistically independent of Nollywood and "Africa Magic" genres and rules. In it's honest commitment to portraying a realist view of modern Nigeria that neither trivializes or glorifies the existential, I believe Eyimofe is arguably the best film to ever come out of Nigeria so far.

SPAIN

Eyimofe (Jude Akuwudike) works two jobs. Electrician at a printing press by day, a company security guard by night. At home, his sister, Precious (Uzamere Omoye) who loves watching romance shows, sees his newly acquired passport, jumps for joy, and commits to providing funds for the travel visa to Spain. On his night shift, his colleagues and boss discover his passport, amused that Mofe has decided to metamorphose into Sanchez after crossing the border (likely illegally). But plans to get a visa to Spain are well underway. Until tragedy strikes via the carbon monoxide fumes of a faulty generator. 

This is when Chuko and Arie Esiri, the twin directors, first make their intent clear to speak in their own cinematic language. Eyimofe: This Is My Desire, has a unique, gritty, and messy narrative more aware of the strange twists of life in the world's "poverty capital" than the melodrama of death. Especially in a country callously indifferent to the desires and tragedies of the poor. Perhaps the most damning indictment of the state of Nigeria's healthcare and moral system as a whole is depicted in the scene where Mofe is charged thousands of naira by the hospital management for every night the bodies spend in the morgue and also to get the bodies out for burial. While his neighbor is indignant, Mofe resigns to the injustice with a defeated expression on his face. This blank, resigned stare is what Mofe carries throughout his story arc. Except for one brief moment where he breaks down in tears following a long distance phone call with his father, this mask of indifference never slips. Eyimofe is the face of the everyday Nigerian.


ITALY



Rosa (Temiloluwa Ami-Williams), black and beautifully staring at us with hope in her eyes, the photographer's blank white sheet blocking the colourful textiles behind. For Rosa and her pregnant, teenage sister Grace (Cynthia Ebijie), Italy is the goal. Rosa also works two jobs; at a hair salon and a bar. But ends are still hardly met. Pending rent, faulty appliances, maternity medication, all combine to leave Rosa at her wit's end. Stoically, she enters into a Faustian bargain with a child trafficker, Mama Esther (a brilliant cameo by comedian Chioma "Chigurl" Omeruah), to secure passage to Italy in exchange for her sister's unborn baby. 

In the meantime, a pasty Lebanese-American expat, Peter (Jacob Alexander), befriends her on her nightshift and they soon begin a romantic relationship. By this time hardship has made a cold realist out of Rosa and she sees the expat as a chance for a better life and begins to explore the opportunity. However, the foreigner's bourgeoisie Nigerian friends ironically warn him that Rosa is a gold-digger who deserves nothing good. This is a pity because Rosa actually needs money for rent and a lot more. She must also navigate the complex relationship with her landlord, Mr. Vincent (Toyin Oshinaike) who, aware of her financial difficulties keeps pressurizing her for sex in exchange for help.

 Coincidentally, Rosa and Grace live in the same neighborhood as Mofe and they physically cross paths in a hospital lobby. Same location, different problems. This is another nuanced aspect of the film bearing traits of Robert Altman and the parallel shots of Rosa and Mofe walking through the market, pawning personal items to raise money stands out against the banal humdrum of lower-class Lagos existence..




EPILOGUE




It’s hard not to connect with the central picture of what Arie and Chuko Esiri are sketching out with each scene. Even the color-saturated cinematography of DP Arseni Khachaturian is unassuming and complementary. The long takes encourage our eyes to get comfortable with the layers and flow of this indifferent, poverty-stricken world. 

Each frame is distilled to the context and essence of the circumstance. It’s not just the myriad, tangled cords sitting next to a sign that reads “The best safety tool is a safe worker.” It’s Mofe, perched on a plastic chair, fixing broken appliances late at night, his umbrella lit up in green fluorescent light. It’s also Grace, very pregnant, gleefully dancing Shoki with her Muslim friend in front of a house graffitied with “This house is not for sale”; typical of Lagos Mainland buildings. 

Painstakingly assembled, Eyimofe is an honest, wide-eyed expose of 21st century Lagos life with a cyclical quality to it. You get the feeling that this is a story that has been replayed over the decades but in different existences. Now it's Mofe and Rosa's cycle, and like many working-class and poor Nigerians, they must twist and bend their lives to match the haggard and chaotic world around them. They plan for escape, for order, for a normal, better life. Yet improvised survival tactics are all they can rely on to get by. (This is also cleverly alluded to with one of the film's soundtracks, "Happy Survival" by Eddie Kwedy). 

Just like the opening lingering shot of a box of tangled wires, patched together with tape and cardboard, Mofe and Rosa are always one loose wire away from having their Nigerian dream go up in sparks and smoke.

The directors, Arie and Chuko Esiri left Nigeria themselves; attending film school at New York University. The result of their film education is a confident and moving story. Shot on 16mm film, Eyimofe is of perfect color saturation without being unduly raw-looking. And the themes, compositions, and mood are reminiscent of the neorealism of Italy's Vittorio de Sica and India's Satyajit Ray as well as possessing the humility of films of the New Taiwan Cinema. 

Yet, the Esiris are not here to make flamboyant nods to cinema of the past. The language of this film is unique to them; the camera is mobile or still when it needs to be, allowing for time to elapse as though the characters did not have endemic challenges to face. There’s time to take in the ceaseless stream of market and road traffic amidst Lagos' flooded, narrow streets while the old school highlife soundtrack induces a sense of nostalgia. There's time for Grace to dress up in her sister’s shiny, skimpy dress with her Muslim best friend, take selfies in the street and get hit on by thirsty Nigerian men. And there's time to hear and be amused by the hope in Nigerian names like Blessing, Precious, Wisdom. But it is a place where hope is dangerous. Life in Lagos, Nigeria, is hard but death is hardly better. 

To bury the dead, Mofe must navigate various bureaucratic mazes. The lifeless bodies accumulate living debt for every night they spend in the mortuary. Decent coffins are expensive to acquire. Inheritance of the deceased's estate is tangled up in bureaucratic and legal jargon by bankers and lawyers alike. While to save the life of her sister's child Rosa must compromise and settle for the best she can get. 

A tale of two strange yet related lives that never leave the city, Eyimofe is a realistic portrayal of resigned endurance. An endurance which comes from conceding defeat to a system designed to ruin lives. And this endurance, rather than desire, is what Eyimofe is ultimately about because in Nigeria there are no happy endings.