Nollywood Film Review: A Tribe Called Judah
The film with the title above came with a big bang and burst the block( in real terms, Blockbuster). I came to know of the film( I am not as good at motion pictures as books because in books you can see and hear and smell and feel and taste everything) when Atiku Abubakar and Sanwo Olu sent a twit of congratulatory message that one plagiarised one (same words same message) for hitting the 1 billion naira mark and becoming the highest money grossing film in Nigeria. I became interested. And I watched.
Why am I writing this? Honestly, I like celebrating good people and their achievements (a gift God gave me that I don’t ever think I have ever envied anyone. Rather, I celebrate him believing that, so long I keep clapping for them, one day they will also clap for me).
After celebrating people, I love strong women. I truly do. Though honestly, my love for strong women (becoming them) had made me vulnerable in the eyes of weaker women. MY MOTHER IS A STRONG WOMAN, and on trying to be her(defending and protecting and advising and assisting all and sundry I became – in lowly goons eyes – a weak soul: reason if a woman doesn’t have empathy, I see her like a man–I will never get attracted to you: My little secret.
The above paragraph made me have a great likeness for the film A Tribe Called Judah.
The Storyline:
Jeddidah, played by Funke Akindele herself, is the mother of five boys from her five different men (East, North, South, West and “Mid-West”) that she vowed to protect with her life.
Emeka Judah, her first son, is the son of an Igbo man. He works in a Furniture shop, C&K, as a sales boy in a mall to a very wicked money laundering man.
Adamu Judah is the second son who works as a security guard at the same mall as Emeka.
Pere, the third son, is the black sheep of the house who goes about picking pockets in Lagos.
Shina, the fourth and second to the last born, always has his mother’s back and is a Lagos hooligan.
Ejiro, the last born, is a lover boy with–his life–Testimony (a beautiful young girl who can give him EVERYTHING, including her life, if it matters. Honestly, their love is something that can be seen only in films in the contemporary world.
As life keeps unravelling itself, every member of the family is loved by one another because their mother is solidly behind them. Emeka played his role as the big brother, always defending, fending, protecting and advising them. Adamu, the second from the womb, played his deputy role perfectly. He fell in love with a beautiful Hausa girl, but having no name or knowing the house of his father at Kano in Dala made him lose her. (Ejiro and Testimony’s love in reverse). Pere, the thief who, if not for sheer luck and the goodness you do, always find you wherever you are, would have been burnt alive by typical Lagosians, but for Jeddidah’s always love for goodness. She was there at the right time, and Pere was saved. Shina, the bloody bad English speaker and an area tout in a gang in Lagos, hears him, “I will work on me.” All these fingers are not equal.” despite his bad English guy, he is the man with the strongest will. He defended the family when it mattered most.
Ejiro, last born. The weakling and the somehow rejected cornerstone who, without the last heroic act of his lover, Testimony, would have all been killed.
You see, I have this belief that if you are good, you are good. Funke Akindele, both in the outside world and in the film she produced, is a good woman. The reason she has to be riding Keke Napep is to make sure that she loves her children despite having lost all their fathers one way or the other. So, when the time came for the children to stand by her, they all teamed up to save her by getting the needed money for a kidney transplant.
The highly accented Igbo-speaking CEO of C&K Furniture, in fact, this guy is the salt of that film, is the wicked man who is Emeka’s boss that can’t lend Emeka money for his mother’s sickness but saying that Emeka should give him his mother’s number to give to his wife to join a strong “player glup in a church his wife is in.” You will laugh your life out and you will see in your very eye the statement “money miss road.” His dressing code, ehn! His I don’t care attitude, eh?! And his love for money is something I doubt I have ever seen.
Collette, the C&K General Manager (later have to “Correct don Collect” according to her boss), who was inherently wicked with a bad past, because hardly does a leopard shed its spots, Collette teams up with another gang to come and rob C&K.
On that faithful day, the Juddahs agreed to rob that same. C&K and robbery turned into a war of two factions that Emeka paid the supreme price, but having a strong Deputy, Adamu picked up and made sure that EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS was moved for their mother’s kidney transplant. Collette was apprehended and was shown when she was breaking a CCTV unknown to her. Some lights are not for illumination alone.
She tried to indict Emeka and Adamu, but Emeka has an alibi of saying he is travelling to Italy through the desert always and when sacked from C&K, his phone number hadn’t been reachable. Adamu was off duty on that day and part of the money was gotten from her gang. And for being “GILIDI”, she took a slug for her wickedness. And that was the end of a bad life, I believed.
The cinematography, the sounds, the colour combo, the settings, the scenes, the plots, the structure and everything that is required of a good film are contained in A Tribe Called Judah.
Let’s make Funke Akindele the BILLIONAIRE that she deserves. Go watch the film.
Written by
Engr. Mustapha Ibrahim, MNSE, R.Eng. BDSP.
President, Triple E Foundation.
