Reviews

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  ★★★½ review by Jasmine Jones on Letterboxd

  52 Films By Women 2017
  
  Week 10: 6-12 March - From Sub-Saharan Africa

  
  
  It was so interesting to me how this was set in modern day, but they still couldn't fully let go of some of their older traditions, specifically one that you would expect them to let go of at this time. But you could tell they were conflicted about it, holding onto those traditions because they're so used to them and because they have pressure from others to continue following them, but also trying to move past it. I really did like this, I just wish it was a little shorter.

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  ★★★★ review by Allison on Letterboxd

  This film was a really well constructed, tense film about the experience of being married in a country that puts high pressure on producing a "male heir".

  One of my favorite parts of this one was actually the character of the husband as well. While he's not as fleshed out as the lead, Amaka, I really appreciated that Nonso was a supportive husband and a "modern man". Both Amaka and Nonso clearly chaffed under the traditional ideals of their society, and you could really feel a society in a cultural transition. It was just fine to push those boundaries to a certain degree, possibly even something to be praised, until you get to the point of it just being too much (in this case, having only one wife is all fine, as long as your wife can give birth to a boy). I appreciated seeing him struggle with this as well, and this added another layer to everything Amaka was going through as you were never totally sure if her husband would have been supportive if she had opened up to him or not.

  52 Films By Women Challenge Week 4: From the Twitter list started by Ava Duvernay of 115 Films by and About Women of Color

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  ★★★★ review by Richard Doyle on Letterboxd

  An upper middle class Nigerian woman is pregnant with her second child. Her first child is a girl, and her husband's family is stressing how important it is for this child to be a boy. She's pushing 40, so the chances of her having a third child is pretty remote. Her husband's mother is pushing him to take on a second younger wife. Circumstances conspire to leave her childless and unable to reveal to her husband what has happened. She follows an increasingly tortuous path towards acquiring a male baby at whatever cost. The circumstances set up in this film seem pretty far-fetched, but that's made up for by the way it shows the sort of bad decisions that get made when pressure is applied on people. The husband seems like a good man, and he stands up for his wife when his family attacks her, but not even he seems willing to completely stand up to the insane pressure to deliver an heir to carry on his family name. The film's about a half hour too long, but it's an engrossing and revealing portrait of what oppressive cultural traditions can do to individuals.

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  ★★★★ review by Trevor Ball on Letterboxd

  Dramatic and effective...a well-written story with clever twists.

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  ★★★½ review by Aimee on Letterboxd

  Dude.

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