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Like a Nigerian Safdie brothers, Arie and Chuko Esiri have crafted an elegant, neorealist debut that captures the beating heart of Lagos in the stories of two local dreamers struggling with their city’s Kafkaesque capitalism.
Mofe is an electrical engineer by day and security guard by night, who lives with his sister and her children. Rosa works as a hairdresser and bartender, and looks after her pregnant younger sibling. Neither knows the other, and their stories barely intersect, but both are husting for something better, somewhere else – he dreams of Spain; she, of Italy – and both are constantly hampered by the same obstacles of infuriating bureaucracy, unfettered capitalism and quotidian poverty.
Uber-talented twin brothers Arie and Chuko Esiri imbue their debut feature with immense heart, gentle humour and deep soul. The stories of Mofe (Jude Akuwudike, Beasts of No Nation) and Rosa (electrifying newcomer Temi Ami-Williams) offer a richly textured, humanist portrait of life at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder, set against the complex, interconnected pulse of one of the world’s most populous cities. Indeed, Lagos functions almost as a third protagonist, its colour, energy and sweltering heat beautifully captured on warm 16mm film by cinematographer Arseni Khachaturan (Beginning, MIFF 2021). This revelatory tale of attempted migration and local self-actualisation heralds the Esiri brothers as filmmakers to watch.
“Stunning … Eyimofe is part of a promising new wave of Nigerian cinema … It is bold, unafraid of proposing new cinematic languages while engaging complex social issues.” – Sight & Sound