SOUL OF A MAIDEN

REVIEWED BY; NKECHI NWABUDIKE
PRODUCED BY; OKIJA AMAKA INDUSTRIES LTD.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER; HYACINTH ONWUKA
PRODUCER; OBI MADUOGWU
HYACINTH ONWUKA
DIRECTOR; TCHIDI CHIKERE (DGN)
STORY; BRUCE IYKE OKAFOR
OBI MADUBOGWU
SCREENPLAY; TAI EMEKA OBASI
TCHIDI CHIKERE
MAIN CAST; MIKE EZURUONYE, INI EDO, MERCY JOHNSON, LAZ EKWUEME
TIME; PART 1 – 1.07.04 HOURS
PART 2 – 1.09.00 HOURS
GENRE; MELODRAMA. There is the struggle between the evil parts of our tradition and change.
TRAGEDY; The movie ends on a sad note for the major characters
ROMANCE; The underlying concept in the movie is Love
SYNOPSIS;
The movie opens with the revelation of the reason why Ulamma (Ini Edo) is called “nwapata”, “osu” and is treated like an outcast. After hearing it, she swears that since she cannot marry, no man will see her nakedness till the day she dies. Igwe Dike Ikenga (Laz Ekwueme) of Afalasa tells his son Prince Chukwudi Obieze (Mike Ezuruonye) that in line with tradition, he must pick a wife from the maiden dance, Obieze picks Nuria thinking her a virgin. On their wedding night, he gives Nuria some time for them to get to know each other before he exercises his conjugal rights and she confirms that she is a virgin. Obieze’s man, Agaba (Chigozie Okoli) makes us know of his past relationship with Nuria. Obieze decides to sleep with his wife and finds out that she is not a virgin, he then rejects his wife. Obieze goes jogging one morning and sees Ulamma, after a while she agrees to marry him. The Igwe discovers that Ulamma is “nwapata” and breaks up Obieze’s relationship, he orders an attack on Ulamma’s family but the timely intervention of Obieze saves them. Obieze tells his father that he will give up the Kingdom for Ulamma. Agaba and Nuria hatch a plan to defile Ulamma, Agaba proceeds to try and Obieze stops him thrice. Meanwhile the Igwe and his council hatch a plan to get rid of Ulamma. They tell Obieze that he can marry Ulamma and he quickly gets engaged to her. Obieze is sent to represent the King in a function, while he is gone Ulamma’s mother is killed by Agaba and his boys and Ulamma is kidnapped and given to the King of Amaegede (Ikechukwu Jideofor), to sacrifice with their Queen. The Dibia (Nick Ibekwe) rejects Ulamma and the King insists that he continues even when the dibia warns that doing so would be tantamount to burying a queen with a queen. Obieze is told that Ulamma was kidnapped by the people of Amaegede, Amaka tells him the truth and he confronts his father and vows to leave the palace and never return till his father is dead.
Along the road, he sees Ulamma and she tells him that the Dibia lied to his people and released her because he was afraid of punishment from the gods. However she refuses to marry him as long as her people, the umuapata, are slaves in the kingdom of Afalasa. Obieze goes to his father and tells him that he will return on the conditions that Agaba, Nuria and everyone involved in the kidnap of Ulamma is banished and that the umuapata people are freed and granted the rights accorded to every other person in the Kingdom. His father agrees and issues a proclamation that all nwapata’s are free. After it all, Ulamma refuses to marry Obieze saying that though she loves him, she may come to hate him whenever she remembers that his father ordered her mother killed. She leaves the town. Obieze says that culture killed his love and leaves with the intention of returning sometime in the future to change some of those cultures.
SETTING; The movie is set in an Eastern Nigeria village in the late 20th century.
MUSIC; Tchidi Chikere and Amaka Ezeh.
COUNTRY; Nigeria.
LANGUAGE; English, the songs are in Igbo but they are subtitled.
THEMES; Good always triumphs and Change is Inevitable.
COSTUME AND MAKE-UP ; Periodic costume and make-up were dominant in the movie. There was also character make up for the old man (Mike Ezuruonye) and the Dibia.
SHOTS; Medium shots and Close-Up shots were favoured in the film. They occur most frequently.
ANGLE; Medium angle was employed almost throughout the movie. Low angle was employed when Obieze’s slippers dropped in the scene where Obieze wanted to exercise his conjugal rights.
REFLECTIONS; Culture is a thing to be proud of, it defines who we are but not all culture should be encouraged. The practice of any culture which seeks to destroy and dehumanize any sect should not be encouraged. The “osu” or outcast system is inhuman and should be outlawed. Change is the only thing that is constant, if we try and stand against the tide of change we will be swept away. While trying to humanize our culture, we shouldn’t throw away the entire basket. The masquerade performances and realistic impression of the “mmanwu” chasing children at the maiden dance confirms this.
Some areas of production could do with more work however. Camera shots become monotonous if they only take one character at a time
Kudos to Tchidi Chikere for a good job.
QUOTES; “Though I keep the company of the wicked, I am not myself a wicked girl”,
“Culture is good, but not all culture is good”,
“Sometimes, love is not enough”.
REVIEWED BY; NKECHI NWABUDIKE
NOVEMBER 6, 2009.