Nigerian filmmaker CJ Obasi’s Mami Wata is delicately poised on contradictions and conflicts: between tradition and modernity, faith and disbelief, trust and incredulity and myth and reality.
The Nigeria-France-United Kingdom co-production is set in a remote, fictional West African village of Iyi which follows the cult of the water goddess Mami Wata with the elderly Mama Efe (Rita Edochie) as the long-time intermediary between the deity and the villagers. But all is not as well as it seems. There are intimations of trouble brewing in the community with some young members beginning to question the cult and its centrality in their lives. The dissensions come to the fore when a young boy dies, and Mama Wefe resists the call from the medical community to vaccinate the population against the virus.
Her own daughter Zinwe (Uzoamaka Aniunoh) doesn’t understand her decision and protege Prisca (Evelyne Ily Juhen) warns about the people’s resistance to her outdated ways. The unrest intensifies further with the arrival of Jasper (Emeka Amakeze), a former rebel who decides to take over Iyi, promising school, hospital, electricity, water and more in return for the patronage and support from the villagers.
While the conflict at the heart of Mami Wata is complex and convoluted, Obasi shoots it ironically with a monochromatic palette, playing beautifully with the darkness of the sea at night and its stark majesty during the day. Divided into chapters, like a novel, with a title card setting the tone for each section, the film, however, feels more like a filmed play, with characters marking their entries and exits in static scenes. There is a systematic deliberateness and formalism to the acting, right down to the ritualistic costumes and getup.
The foundation of the film lies in pagan culture and its archetypes. However, Obasi also gives a touch of the real to the folklore, fable-like narrative. There is a political parable in Jasper’s assurances to the residents of Iyi, quite like a politician’s pre-election promises that eventually never get fulfilled. At another level Obasi also turns the battle into an allegorical war between the genders, giving centrality to the feminine energy which appears to propel the matriarchal society at Iyi. And then there’s the overarching metaphor of the corporate colonisers who plunder and exploit the forests and the indigenous populations in the name of development, leaving the areas and people poorer and denuded.
The battle between tradition and modernity, however, leaves one most conflicted, especially when it comes to the conservatism of Mama Efe. How can she overlook the imminence of change and the necessity of basics like schools and hospitals? Why should Iyi stay stuck in time at her behest when other villages have marched ahead? Just when you start aligning with Jasper and his band of brothers, you realise that they have given in to corruption too.
Then, there’s the other, equally compelling argument in Mama Efe’s support, about the diversity of cultures getting obliterated with the dominant, monolithic, modern Western sensibility, taking over everywhere. “People have forgotten who they are in their alacrity to follow White people,” she says. Is traditionalism necessarily a sign of regression then and modernity all about progress? Perhaps not. Instead, there’s a middle ground worth exploring, which is what the film and the filmmaker try to underscore.
Mami Wata had its world premiere in the World Dramatic Competition section at the Sundance Film Festival in January this year. It won the director of photography Lilis Soares the special jury prize for cinematography. It is Nigeria’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the Oscars and will be playing at the upcoming Dharamshala International Film Festival.
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Film: Mami Wata
