For the second part of the year 2018, one of the most
talked about Nigerian movies was ‘Up North.’ While there are no exact
reasons why this is so, it can be attributed to many things.
First, the trailer sold it off as a feel-good movie, generally
the type of movie that you want to have some popcorn and a drink and
just reel in laughter.
It also had some of Nollywood’s favorites
with a story that anyone who had passed through or heard about the NYSC
program could relate with.
The trailer may not have entirely had a lot of people sold on it, but it definitely got people excited.
‘Up North’ is a story about Bassey Otuekong
(Bankole ‘Banky W’ Wellington), a spoilt and rebellious heir who, as
expected, believes life is a bed of roses.
To punish him and try to curb his
excesses for a while, his father, Chief Otuekong (Kanayo O.Kanayo)
decides to send him to Bauchi for his compulsory service year, preparing
him to take over the company and humbling him in the process.
In Bauchi, Bassey finds friendship, love and a
passion that burns deep, and as his father would say, make him into a
man that he was never before. ‘Up North’ is Anakle Film’s debut
feature-length film, in collaboration with Inkblot Productions and a
runtime of about two hours.
It is not exactly an original piece of
storytelling, given that we’ve seen films like Legally Blonde (2001)
where the wealthy person has to go on a journey of self-improvement,
often with the aid of a person, but it’s definitely a good effort.
It turns to the NYSC experience to bring it home, seeing as many young people dread this for obvious reasons.
‘Up North’
If anything, it shows the service year in good
light seeing as Bassey was reluctant at first, but then he ends up
making a good friend in Sadiq (Ibrahim Suleiman) and finding love in
Aminat (Rahama Sadau).
All
that was left at this point, really, was for Bassey to finalize with a
personal CDS project and get the accolades that come with it.
The film makes use of easy-breezy language to
pass its message and you can see the effort to interject a couple of
shady, and witty lines into the dialogue, which is very well
appreciated.
Nonetheless, there are a couple of issues with the story, some that would have made the story appear better.
To begin, the love story between Aminat and
Bassey seems so far-fetched especially seeing as there were no prior
discussions or ground motive for it to be hinged on.
It would have been better for their love story
to have a little bit of progression, something similar to what Sadiq
and Aminat (Adesua Etomi-Wellington) had.
Also, at some point, it feels like everything was done in a rush, especially during the first few minutes of the movie.
It’d have been better to allow these things to
play out and see how it goes. It may be a reach, but there had to be a
reason why Chief Otuekong was referred to as ‘Chief’ by Bassey and his
sister, Idara (Michelle Dede). I would have liked an explanation for
this regard but we don’t always get what we want.
Apart from the little loopholes in the story,
‘Up North’ came correct in every other way. This film is definitely also
going down as one of the Nigerian films with the best scores ever.
It borrows songs like ‘Bahd, Baddo, Baddest’
by Falz, Olamide and Davido, ‘Fresh Love’ by Dinachi and ‘Motherland’ by
Sound Sultan to a couple of original Northern themed pieces done by
Gray Jones Ossai.
The film also boasts amazing location which is
another winner in the grand scheme of events. It is shot predominantly
in Bauchi, with a few shots in Lagos, and for the period of the movie,
it does a good job of whetting your appetite enough to want to visit
Bauchi.
It will also come in handy that the governor
of the state, who makes a cameo in the movie, is very interested in
exposing the tourism potential of his state, and Up North actively
serves this purpose.
The acting in the film is pretty decent, from
start to finish. With performances from a stellar cast consisting of
Kanayo O.Kanayo, Hilda Dokubo, Michelle Dede, Adesua Etomi-Wellington,
Rahama Sadau, Bankole Wellington and Ibrahim Suleiman, it’s not that
hard to see why.
However, the star of the movie is easily
Ibrahim Suleiman, who in his role as a sidekick is very able to bring
all the words to life, through his actions and most importantly, his
facial expressions.
The camera work is great and whether it’s an
aerial view or a closeup one, it properly brings the viewers in to share
in what is happening at the moment.