In the anthology picture Juju Stories, a group of young people welcome the supernatural into their lives in ways that at first appear to be harmless. The end point, though, is anything but.
In the first story, Love Potion, directed by Michael Omonua, boy meets girl but there are no real sparks flying, at least to boy—well, until girl amplifies her appeal by supernatural means. Love is warfare. And the weapon for Mercy, the girl, as suggested by a friend, consists of menstrual blood—saved, boiled, and transformed to tea. It works but maybe it works a bit too well, especially when Leonard (Paul Utomi) moves in and real-life butts in.
Yam, the second film, directed by Abba Makama, opens with a wealthy family at breakfast, then moves to a street hustler whose life changes forever after he picks money from the ground as he goes about his day. His fate is entwined with a pair of lovers seeking a solution (or resolution) to an unwanted pregnancy.
In the third juju story, CJ Obasi’s Suffer the Witch, which also feels like the most substantial, weird student Joy (Nengi Adoki) is accused of witchcraft by fellow students, most of whom are scared of her and her supposed abilities. She befriends Chinwe (Bukola Oladipupo) who happens to have a boyfriend who doesn’t quite like their friendship. The tension between all three leads to violence.
At the heart of this anthology, which on occasion looks like the work of talented student filmmakers, is the Nigerian concept of the spiritual and how it manifests in the lives of ordinary people. Unlike the America Hollywood often puts on the screen which mostly has a relationship with the spiritual that shows up as horror (in films like Rosemary’s Baby or Evil Dead) or as fantastic (as in any number of fantasy films) or as mythic-comic (as in Marvel’s Thor series), Nigerian cinema has never really separated the physical and spiritual.
The film referred to as the inaugural Nollywood film, Living In Bondage, had a man kill his wife to make money he spent in the movie’s physical world—and can be rightly referred to as drama. Since then, many films have combined those same elements without the national audience ever requiring a lecture on the suspension of disbelief. It is just the way Nigerians have always lived. The directors of Juju Stories, who, a la Lars von Trier’s Dogme 95, call themselves Surreal 16, have used young people in all of the stories but the core of the stories they tell is as old as the country they come from and yet have never quite lost their potency.
The sole story that could be said to have peaked a couple of decades ago is Yam, which takes its central conceit from 1990s newspaper reports on tuberous transformations. Whether those reports were ever substantiated remain unclear but the power they hold over the Nigerian population has never really waned. Western viewers of Juju Stories will consider these stories as unusual and maybe comic. They might need to speak to an African to understand the hold each of these juju stories has still on the many Africans. There’s a reason many Africans don’t call these stories fantasy.
Directors: Michael Omonua, Abba Makama, CJ Obasi
Screenwriters: Michael Omonua, Abba Makama, CJ Obasi
Cast: Belinda Agedah Yanga, Paul Utomi, Elvis Poko, Don Ekwuazi, Nengi Adoki, Bukola Oladipupo, Timini Egbuson, Seun Kentebe
Producer: Oge Obasi
Executive producer: Francis Nebot
Cinematography: Femi Awojide
Production manager: Don Paul Umana
Costume design: Seun Banjo,
Editing: Chinedum Okerengwor
Music: Philippe Razol
Sound Recordist: Adesugba Sunday
VFX: The Critics Company
Production companies: 20 Pounds, Fiery Film, Osiris, Cine9ja (Nigeria)
Distributor: Ifind Pictures
84 minutes
