THE STORY OF A MAN, HIS GOD, HIS WORSHIP AND WHORESHIP

Joseph Omoniyi

 Synopsis/Summary

After Collision Course, Multiple award-winning producer, and director, Bolanle Austen-Peters debuted her Netflix-original Man of God, a movie that tells the story of Samuel (Akah Nnani) who forsakes his harsh religious background to forge a different life for himself – but his soul gets caught up between his new world and the faith he left behind.

Set in Lagos, Nigeria with a confusing period, the 111-minute movie written by Shola Dada, directed and produced by Bolanle Austen-Peters, was released on the 16th of April, 2022, and features Akah Nnani, Osas Ighodaro, Nelson Enwerem, Dorcas Shola Fapson, Atlanta Bridget Johnson, Jude Chukwuka, Eucharia Anunobi, Patrick Doyle, Ayo Mogaji, Shawn Faqua, Mawuli Gavur, and Olamide Oworu.

 

CENTRAL DRAMATIC PROBLEM (CDP)

In the beginning – In an unspecific time, we descend into a typical Nigerian church during what looks like a revival service led by the presiding pastor/General Overseer, “Prophet Josiah Obalolu”, whom we discover is Samuel’s father. While everyone is ‘feeling the Holy Spirit’, Samuel feels indifferent and then sneaks out to join his friends playing outside the church, but not before his father sees him. Furious, Prophet Josiah tries to flog the hell out of him. We then quickly realise the father is used to abusing his son physically and verbally. At this point, we are thinking, this is another Nollywood abusive parent story within a religious family. We have seen this before, but just waiting for the “what if” of this variant. While being pacified by his mom (Ayo Mogaji), Samuel drops a ‘bombshell’, one day I will leave this house and will never return. In the next frame, we see grown-up Samuel now famously known as “Abami” – treating fellow UNILAG students to Fela’s afrobeat. Meanwhile, despite blowing smoke and hot on stage, there’s an abyss in his soul. The son of a Prophet, now a Fela Anikulapo Kuti in spirit, body, and maybe not in soul. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Yes, it is. The story of the prodigal son. But wait, let’s not jump ahead of ourselves. Will Samuel successfully forge a new world for himself or eventually bow to the overwhelming voice-to-return-home in his head? Will Samuel, the son of the prophet find his way home, or will he further descend into the abyss?

 

Plot/Sub-plot/Plants

We already know Samuel is the driver of this movie’s major plot – the A-story. So, we follow him as he leads his afro-jazz music band performing in various shows with what looks like a carbon-copy lifestyle of the late Afrobeat god, Fela Anikulapo Kuti.

Samuel lives a reckless life with his girlfriend, Rekya/Reks (Dorcas Shola Fapson) who also runs a shady, mysterious business as a side hustle, because the money they generate from show tickets is no longer enough to fund their lifestyle.  They miss classes and tests.

Meanwhile, we get introduced to Teju, a childhood family friend of Samuel, who helps him with some of the assignments, and handouts, one of which costs N30, 000 in the year 2000 (smiles).

To finally convince Samuel to attend her campus fellowship, Teju attends One of Samuel’s shows with Joy (Atlanta Bridget Johnson), a pastor, and boom! Samuel develops a feeling for her. Love in the air. This love is so strong that it begins to drag him from his reckless living closer to more serious life and then, the students’ fellowship. This upsets Teju whom we discover has had a secret affection for Samuel all this while. She disappears from Samuel, Joy, and the plot, while Samuel becomes scarce in Rekya’s.

Nevertheless, Samuel and Joy’s love affair becomes stronger that, he even threatens to hit Rekya for it, while a fellow pastor in Joy’s fellowship, “Pastor BJ” expresses his discomfort with their unequal yoke. After backing this up with a short sermon, Pastor BJ further reveals the most ‘important of his reasons’ – that Samuel is Prophet Josiah Obalolu’s first son. Shockingly, it is enough! Enough for Joy to ditch Samuel and their love affair.

Revealed- Rekya’s side hustle is repackaged drug business, from which she just made a million naira and then buys a house and plans to “japa” as Samuel eventually succeeds in getting Joy back into his life with a promise to worship what she ‘whoreships’, go wherever she goes.

However, held back by his many carryovers, Samuel fails to graduate with his set, making Joy leave him behind for her Youth Service after graduation.

A few months later, Samuel’s life is shattered after he discovered Joy has gotten married to Pastor Zach (Mawuli Gavur) who was the guest minister during a send-off fellowship organized during her graduation. You are shocked!? Yes, you should be.

Re-emerged – Teju saves him from his now depressive life, nurturing him back to life and nine years later, they become a Mr-and-Mrs in a Pentecostal church, with Samuel as the music director who endures the excesses of the bishop’s wife (Eucharia Anunobi).

Again, another re-emergence – Rekya reappears just to plant the seed of church business in Samuel’s heart. Gbam! She wakes up one morning to “hear from God” who “called him three times” just like he did Samuel in the Bible.

Begins – church ministry, “Vineyard of Love Ministry” which launches his life into a new world of charisma, glamour, fame, and wealth. He enjoys it – for a while, before his entire world takes a different turn, hitting the rock-bottom, again. It seems his life would remain unsettled until…

 

Screenplay

With a simple linear story-telling style, the screenplay employs Dan Harmon’s story circle to explore the journey of the protagonist, Samuel who leaves his ordinary world – his father’s house and ministry to forge a direct opposite life for himself, crossing the threshold in search of his ideal kind of life, not without his fair share of trials. He gets torn between the fellowship and his “Abami” life. Struggles to find a balance between his music career and his academics. He then meets the goddess – Joy who changes the course of his journey and then her mysterious disappearance throws his life into chaos. Saved by Teju, he then finds himself in the very world he spent the larger part of his youth running from, thanks to Rekya and Teju. The screenplay, however, fails to address some of the established setups like Samuel’s harsh upbringing, and the physical and verbal abuse at the hands of his biological father. What period is the movie actually set in? It’s confusing. After the establishing series of scenes, the screenplay jerks us forward into what looks like the 1990s, where you should not be finding mobile phones, hence, the letters and emails, but you find modern automobiles, houses, and outfits, flat-screen TVs. Also, Teju handing Samuel a bulky handout for “30 bucks” in the year 2000 when a bag of rice is still about N5, 000, will never add up, just as using the slang “baddo”.

The screenplay also left several other weak and loose ends in the plot: How a fellowship female pastor engages in an open romantic relationship with a campus bad boy does not add up. How weak is also Joy’s reason to ditch Samuel? Even their coming back together is weak.  How in the world did Joy meet and marry Zach in the space of four months with nothing to set Samuel up for search heartbreak? – too weak. After many failed attempts to write him back home and watching her husband’s unbothered attitude, Samuel’s mother professes her decision to go to Lagos in search of her son. What happened to that decision?  What happened to Teju? And at homecoming, Samuel’s appearance after spending many years in jail is laughable when you see that his father and younger brother look unchanged.

The dialoguing is just there. The screenplay tries to make some bible quotes its recallable lines but it didn’t work, at all. Rekya tells Samuel “who be your sister, I dey knack you well…”, after he told her, “my sister, I no judge you”, will always ring a bell.

 

Character and Characterization

Samuel Obalolu, our lead character interprets the modern prodigal son in this social drama. He is that man that gets driven into a life of trials and struggles, having come from a harsh upbringing (the payoff of this premise and setup is too weak and poor). In Samuel, we see the young boy born into a Nigerian religious family against his will. In Samuel, we see the student on campus running from a traumatic childhood and embracing the freedom a higher institution offers. In Samuel, we see the struggle of a young, talented student trying to combine his music career with academics. In Samuel, we see a young man caught in a love triangle among three beautiful damsels, Rekys who has been his backbone, supporting structure, and sex mate on campus, Teju, a childhood cum family friend, and a secret admirer, and Joy, the 60-watts beautiful campus-fellowship pastor. In Samuel, we also see a pulpit merchant who is into the religious ministry for the ‘PLC’. Eventually, we see in Samuel, the returning prodigal son who might probably take up the mantle and anointing from his father. Samuel goes from failing his goal to realizing his need.

Rekya is that bad girl your parents tell you to avoid in school. She is also a result of life happened. She lost her parent and with no member of the family to help, she chose the wrong side of the society to find her hustle, to survive through school and life. But sadly, the screenplay badly executed her death.

Akah Nnani and Dorcas Shola Fapson gave a good delivery of their roles with an igniting combo and relationship.

Teju is a good-church girl, who maintains a good upbringing only to end up with a bad marriage. – “This life no balance”, they say. Teju is also the housewife that does everything right to make sure she does not lose her misbehaving husband.

Prophet Obalolu is the father and a “man of God” with the iron hand who wants his children to live and function ‘in the house of God’, failure means physical and verbal abuse and an expectation of an uneasy life.

Zach who barely spends 40 seconds of screen time but manages to make the movie poster is just here to steal the joy of a ‘beautiful love story’. He is the guy that everybody on campus expects to become popular after school but ends up falling out of the ministry. He is the honest guy that fails to allow the pressure of society to force him into what he does not want. We have seen many in the religious ministry business today who are there because they were encouraged into it by both their environment and the expectations of the people around them.

The Bishop and his wife are flat characters used to mount more pressure on Samuel, especially with the excesses of the Bishop’s wife who is bent on making life uneasy for Samuel in her husband’s church ministry…until she succeeds in frustrating Samuel out of the church. Samuel must obey her command. Even her husband jilters in fear of not falling into her bad book. Her excesses however further reemphasise Samuel’s pretentious changed life.

Cinematography

For a Netflix-original in collaboration with Bolanle Austen-Peters who had delivered, 93 Days, Collision Course, Bling Lagosians, the quality of the pictures was expected – top-notch. The live performance shows were beautifully shot. The stage movements, low-angle close-ups, and MS with the colours make us feel we are really at the venue of an afro-jazz performance. It also tries not to take the focus off “Abami”, following him to backstage, where he depicts Samuel’s battle, struggle between two worlds, and voices with the mirror.

Directorial Prowess/Production Design/Post-production

BAP is known for exploring social commentary stories, just as she did with 93 Days, Collision Course, and Bling Lagosians. This time she explores a faith-based social drama of how many are driven into crazy worlds – drug and organ trafficking, fake ministry, failed marriage. She turns a typical prodigal son story into an emotional drama, exploring themes like discipline, money-worship, self-discovery, and redemption. BAP is known to have done a lot of stage plays which informs the heavy drama in most of her screen works, geared toward moving people

 

Lesson Learnt

The Man of God explores the themes, of self-discovery, discipline, faith, and redemption. There is nobody that is irredeemable as long as they are willing to take a turn ‘back home’, where the waiting embrace of the father is still available.

Conclusion

The Man of God is flawed with several loose ends and weak plot points, however, there is no denying the fact that it successfully employs each of its frames, pictures, and the beautiful arts/languages of filmmaking loaded with emotional drama to reach out to its target audience.

Verdict

This movie earns a 55/100 for repping quality. Cheers!

Shoots.ng’s Score Guard

Every Item is 10 marks and 100% in all.

71- 100%= you are the bomb, be ready for Oscar

51-70%= thank you for repping quality

31- 50%= you can do better, up your game

11-30%= Return to film school

01- 10%= Filming is not for you, look for another job