Before I get into the review of this film, let me talk about what led to me watching it. A friend of mine who knows I'm a bit of a fanatic when it comes to the Nigerian director, Kunle Afolayan, tagged me to one of his in the works movies on twitter. I was excited to see that we'd have something to watch soon, but that also made me curious to just check my Netflix to see if any gems had been dropped quietly. I usually depend on Nigerian Twitter for popular and new drops on Netflix but could find nothing about this one. They definitely need to do better with promotions.
I was so happy and added it to my mental lists of films to watch. Yesterday, I finally did and can confess yet again that Kunle Afolayan is the best that we currently have in Nollywood. Also, the writer of this particular film 'Diamonds in the Sky' is phenomenal. His name is Tunde Babalola. He has worked with Kunle to make some of my favorite new Nollywood films like 'Citation', 'October First'. They're a match made in film heaven.
Now to the gist of the matter. Diamonds in the Sky is a story that was produced with the support of Leah foundation and Sterling bank and tells the story of three different families who have to grapple with news of cancer.
It's so unique in how these families never get to interact with each other even if they visit the same place; the Leah foundation for cancer patients. Yet it never for once feels like a disjointed story.
Kunle is so fond of using new faces in his works which is refreshing, so I will just list a few of the names that were unfamiliar to me(might not be the same for you though) as well those Nollywood actors viewers would certainly recognize as veteran actors in the game. Names like Femi Adebayo who played the role of Kunle, a man in a relationship with a woman whom he constantly asks to take birth control pills after sex and who is wrongly diagnosed with cancer and his girlfriend Omowumi Dada, who played the role of Teniola,
There was also the family of Joke Silva who played the role of an power MD with the name of Aisha Dalhatu and a son who she groomed well enough to take over the company even with the opposition of an Uncle who felt he was too young and inexperienced. She was diagnosed with cervical cancer, same as Teniola from above, although in her case, it was not a mistake.
Finally, and undoubtedly my favorite cast for this film was the family of Bimbo Akintola who played the role of Labake Aliyu, the wife of Kayode Olaiya who played Akanbi Aliyu. She was found to have breast cancer. This family was my favorite to watch because they shone so brightly as Kunle Afolayan's signature. This was a family that was not very educated and living a hard life but this did not mark their entire existence. In the few scenes they had to themselves, they were able to display to the audience a peculiar love in homes that are not necessarily affluent.
They were relatable and very natural. They joked and laughed and annoyed each other. I loved the way they teased each other, I loved the lack of violence when Kayode found out his wife has allowed herself to be bathed by a false priest in hopes of getting cured, I loved how he came back to the hospital to hold her hands and the funny back and forth when they had to come to the acceptance that she would no longer get to keep her breasts. It was so beautiful how this was not glossed over in this film. I shed some tears when I saw that this was not going to be a typical misogynistic film with a suffering woman because we are shown too often that the poor in Nigeria can be volatile in the tempers. This is true but it is not 100% true at all times and it is just nice to see something that depicts that percentage, whatever it might be.
Not only was this film entertaining, but it was educational in the material especially in the sessions at the Leah foundation. I learnt that 9 year olds could get the HPV vaccine. I wasn't aware of this. It has created awareness about the existence of the foundation and about being more watchful of your health as a woman to catch symptoms early and get them checked. I forgot to mention, but I was happy that Kunle did not think of abandoning his fiancée when his cousin misdiagnosed her as having cervical cancer. We know how predictable such story lines are in Nollywood, but this one took a nice turn even with the added pressure of him being an only child and son to his parents.
I don't think it is surprising for anyone that I'd chose to rate this a solid 10/10 heh :)
Let me know if you've watched this and what you thought of it :)