Movie Title: Adire
Release Date: 13 January, 2023
Directors: Adeoluwa Owu
Runtime: 2 hours, 3 minutes
Cast:Kehinde Bankole, Femi Branch, Kelechi Udegbe, Funlola Aofiyebi-Raimi, Ibrahim Chatta, Yemi Blaq, Yvonne Jegede, Lizzy Jay, Mike Afolarin, Tomi Ojo, Damilola Ogunsi, Onyinye Odokoro, Ifeanyi Kalu and Layi Wasabi.
The theme of prostitution remains prominent in several Nollywood films. Whether it’s old Nollywood classics like Glamour Girls or Netflix’s hit movies Oloture and Shantytown, these films follow a specific template.
Many of them start by depicting a protagonist who is tired of her life as a sex worker, so she flees. However, her journey to freedom is cut short when her former boss or a disgruntled client she stole money from wants revenge.
The viewers are then kept in suspense, yearning to know if her new life will crumble or if she will emerge victorious at the end of the film.
As much as Adire tries to distance itself from this trope by taking a religious and moral route in its execution, it still feels like a repetition of an all-too-familiar story.
Bordering between romantic comedy and satire, Adire tells the story of a young lady who is very skilled in designing clothes—lingerie, to be specific. However, her talent is overshadowed by her demanding job as a sex worker. It builds up the desire within her to be free from the shackles of her pimp and explore a bigger world than she’s used to. One night, fate’s face shines brightly on her; she gets the chance and runs away for a short time.
Unfortunately, she soon discovers that the more extensive world has more discrimination than she can stomach.
Adire is a good film, no doubt. It features some of the best talents in the industry (Kehinde Bankole and Ifeanyi Kalu, Funlola Aofiyebi-Raimi, Femi Branch, and Yemi Blaq, among many others). Nevertheless, it solidifies the argument that Nollywood producers avoid taking risks with screenplays.
They look for a successful film and replicate the storyline of such a film, hoping that the audience will be drawn to the movie as they were to a similar one. Adire’s storyline is cliche with a bit of creative spin.
The Plot
After many years of working as a prostitute, Adire is fed up with the bleak condition of her life. She desperately wants to leave but is held back by Captain, her boss. After sleeping with a client one night and having a bitter experience, Adire approaches Captain Hellbent about going, but he seductively distracts her.
Sometimes at night, Adire wakes up, steals his money, and runs to a small town in Oyo. She is fascinated by her new freedom and wastes no time pursuing her dream of becoming a lingerie fashion designer.
One night, she decided to unwind by visiting the local bar, where she attracted attention with her beauty and provocative outfits. News of her presence spread around the town, and the men frequently visited the local bar.
Adire’s arrival upset the women of the town, who are conservative Christians. With the support of their leader, Folashade, the pastor’s wife, they embark on a mission to make Adire’s stay unbearable in her supposedly paradise.
The women’s hostility and a deadly visit from her boss leave Adire with a fate that might burn her world down.
The Good
If the steamy scenes in Adire are removed, the film must be shown in religious centres. Adire tackles a century-old issue of condemnation in the church.
Through the character of Folashade, viewers are made to see the mechanism through which hypocrisy works among a few religious individuals.
Folashade is a lady who claims to love God but causes church members like an out-of-wedlock pregnant woman, Abeni, to be ostracised because she did not fit into her “values.”
Adire cements the lesson of “Love your neighbour as you love yourself” and the commandment of “thou shall not judge” as we watch the deaconess face the repercussions of her choice to determine the criteria of holiness unquestioningly.
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When not marred by the dialogue, the acting performances are well executed. Kehinde Bankole plays a convincing sex worker turned designer, Adire; Funlola Aofiyebi-Raimi makes us despise her as a deaconess, proving she did a good job, and Ifeanyi Kalu’s performance as the shy Thomas is applaudable.
The film delivers powerfully on its character arc. Arguably, we see an actual development in the characters for the first time in a recent Nollywood cinema.
Adire, who starts with no prospects and alone, becomes someone with a vast career surrounded by a community. Deaconess grows from a spiteful religious leader to an accepting one.
The Bad
Upon reading the plot of Adire, it was easy to predict the outcome of many events in the film. For example, it was glaring that Captain would be back to exact revenge, she would fall in love with someone there, the deaconess would realise the err of her errors, and Abeni would die to serve as a lesson.
Although there is nothing wrong with a film being predictable, Adire should have distanced itself from this label by introducing twists and turns.
Hypothetically speaking, the writer could have called Captain the main villain. Instead, upon arriving in town, Adire catches the fancy of a drug lord whose need for her increases after he discovers that he can use her bra to traffick drugs. As a way to make her submit to his will, he could hold her new friends hostage. This raises higher stakes and contributes to a dramatic ending, unlike when a simple blow knocks Captain out.
Looking back, we never see the deacon experience her character arc. Viewers just watched her receive the news of her daughter’s pregnancy, and in the next scene, she apologises to Adire for being hostile.
Understandably, the writer wants us to believe that the news of her daughter’s pregnancy brought about a change; it would have been good to see her hesitate before giving in. She could have a) not chosen to accept Adire, holding firm to her holiness values; b) shown up in the church when Adire was being celebrated and smiled at her. The smile signifies a slow acceptance of Adire.
The chemistry between Adire and Thomas, contrary to what the producers intended, was absent. While the actors did great jobs, the scenes with the two failed to convey what it was like to be in love with two people. It would have been great to watch them be vulnerable with each other. Thomas could talk about his wife, and Adire would open up about her past life, meeting each other at a point where they both realised that they were truly meant for each other. All we saw was them having a few surface-level conversations where Thomas constantly repeated that his wife was dead.
Dialogue was another problem in this film. The dialogue felt cringe-worthy and too repetitive. A great example would be when Shalewa breaks into Adire’s house, and Adire repeats, “You broke into my house” three times.
Wrapping up, dear film editors, could you stop the urge to insert background music in scenes? The distracting background music undermined some of the best scenes in Adire.
Final Verdict
5/10. Adire might be described as predictable, but it has cinematic potential and offers a great moral lesson that everyone and anyone is capable of change.
Adire is now streaming on Netflix.
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