Award winning film producer and director Kunle Afolayan breaks the internet yet again with a movie that centres on the exploitation of students sexually by lecturers or academic heads for their(students) own grades. In clearer terms, “Sex for grades”.
This movie which was released just this November has gotten so much attention, especially that of our critical eyes. So sit back, relax, and enjoy our opinions being served because it promises to be one hell of a ride.
The story is about Miss Moremi Oluwa, a Post Graduate student of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife who happens to be really young and has stellar academic stance. She is assertive, outspoken, free spirited and quite “naive” if you ask me. Now pardon me, naive might not be the word but help me classify one who can’t identify the line between being nice and being freaky? Her relationship with Professor N’Dyare has so much red flags. Like anyone can tell that the man took it way past student-teacher relationship, but not her. So I’m guessing the word is “innocent”? Oh I don’t know, but be it as it may, she is that pure with relationships.
The early plots(excluding the panel scenes) portray Professor Lucien N’Dyare as an angel. I mean he is that really engaging, fun, easy to understand lecturer who you would probably vow to have nothing less than a B in his course because he is so cool you just want to impress him. He’s basically the kind of lecturer we all wish we had *coughs in unilag*. To top it up, he takes them to the best location for an educational trip??? At this point I would probably swear total devotion to education for the rest of my life as long as he keeps being my supervisor because what????? So you mean there are still fun lecturers??
As the scenes progress however, the wolf begins to outgrow his sheep’s clothing and we begin to see through the ripped seams. I don’t know if it was just me but one could clearly see his psychopathic attributes. He starts stalking Moremi; hello sir, how is it that of all places to stay at a concert, you choose the same row she is in, just few people away??? Nahhh ain’t no way that is a coincidence. You tell her to call you by your first name, pry into her private life and tell her “I like red” just because you got a glance of her underwear?? Ahn ahn, uncle fear God oo!!! At the trip, he leads her to a lone spot, trails her everywhere, and attempts kissing her even after she tells him she just had a breakup???? It’s the audacity for me! When he finally decides to push his luck too far and attempts to rape her, he gets the shock of his life(thank God for uncle Doctor Boo ooo!!!). Just when he thought he had subdued her, she hits him in the gonads and runs away. I’m sure in her mind she be like “wahala be like bicycle o. Ordinary small purge that I purge. God will not shame us!”
Well, that’s the synopsis, and the panel begins.
As expected, Prof N’Dyare compliments his self absorbed, psychopathic self with great skills of delusion and its catalyst—lying. Being a well experienced sexual abuser he has pre-calculated his moves and their possible outcomes so he manipulates the narratives to favour himself. I’m guessing he figured the questions that would be asked would be somewhat like “why did you go to his office alone?”, “Why did you drive in his car alone with him”, “why did you…” oh come on. We have gone past that uninformed phase of victimising victims even further by blaming them for their suffering, especially when it is a female rape case. At the end of the panel, after proper examination of facts, the case gets ruled in the favour of the complainant our very own Moremi, yay!!
Characters.
I’m guessing we all have different opinions on character performance but can we all agree that all actors brought in their A-game to depict their assigned character???
From the Protagonist, Moremi Oluwa played by Temi Otedola, to Lucien N’Dyare played by Jimmy Jean-Louis, to Moremi’s counsel, Ajike advocate played by Joke Silva, to our Doctor Boo, Koyejo played by Gabriel Afolayan, to Gloria played by Ini Edo, to Mr Kwesi played by Adjetey Anang to our wonderful Panel of Judges(literally, lol), to the twinssssss(OMG, a handful!!! LOL)to every amazing actor that was a part of this project.
Before I take a bow, I would like to talk briefly on some subtle subject matters this movie danced on. Koyejo and Moremi’s relationship was sorta weird. I think somewhere there, there was a clash of ego and a love for clout. I mean Koyejo was MIA, even without the witness restriction, he couldn’t offer the emotional support Moremi needed, she simply needed him to believe her. But when it’s almost over and when she finally wins, uncle is doing crowd control. Shey kosi??? Well, I understand he may have been trying to wrap his head around the whole situation. And Did he not call mummy Ajike “auntie”? So he probably helped yeah, behind the scenes maybe?
Did you also notice that eveyone who seemed to avoid Moremi like a plague suddenly seemed to have a newly found admiration for her after she won the case? I think this depicts the true nature of our reality. A lot of abuse/harrasment victims fail to speak up because of the level of doubt, discouragement, and judgement they will receive from people even the ones closest to them. Worse off, most of those that dare speak up get demonized and justice is tossed out the trash. Which is why I do not entirely blame the students who took justice into their hands with Dr Grillo. I believe this movie urges us to do better as people and as a society with cases as such.
Thank you so much for staying with me so far. If you enjoyed it, kindly comment and share. Also, let me know if I missed out on anything you would love for me to speak on. And share your own opinions toooo. I love to see it. Till next time, stay jiggy.
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