Òlòtūré was released on 2 October on Netflix. I saw four photos on Twitter and I remember looking at one of the shots with Sharon Oojas in a very realistically set up room, with so many brightly colored and girly things, talking to another girl. It just sent a message at the time that this was, hopefully, going to be a movie that paid attention to detail. Unfortunately, this was not the case.
This movie sets as its aim to expose a world of sex trafficking in Lagos. A plot like that is triggering but I hoped that as viewers, we would be led by the capable hands of a journalist(Òlòtūré played by Sharon ). This made me take the risk of sitting through any possible triggers.
I assumed that there wouldn't be a lack of preparedness, and that there would be a distinct focus on the people who would be trafficked as well as a focus on their traffickers. I did not imagine for one moment that I'd have to sit through a total lack of sensibility on this journalist's part.
Sex work is brutal everywhere. There are so many risks to sexual health and life. To take up a role as a brave undercover agent in any capacity means to be mentally and physically prepared to fight the enemies of the people you're spying on. It means to prepare yourself to become a victim in a mid to worst case scenario and I'm a 100% certain that if you packed your bags and went to live in a brothel and went on hook up missions, you'd 100% be in a situation where you either had to have some sex or risk exposing yourself as a fraud.
For some reason, this was not very clear to Sharon. Her backup plans would have evoked laughter if they'd not failed repeatedly, so they elicited nothing but annoyance and irritation.
Those backup plans consisted of her pretending to very clumsily spill a drink on herself to avoid drinking with a politician. They included fluttering her eyes in disbelief as it dawned on her that she could not bank on luck to save her when she was literally surrounded by many girls in lewd positions with these men. It was all just vibes, till she eventually ended up in a room with said politician who gave her an unknown pill, which she had to swallow(what did she think it was?) . She was drugged and raped and as viewers, we're supposed to feel shock?
I can go on and on with the naivety of this role but that was where I lost interest in her story and whatever undercover work she was trying to do. Rape is traumatic and for a girl who knew she was playing with dangerous people, and who'd had the lucky/unlucky experience of jumping out a window(whilst running from a drunk client) and grazing her arm in the process, I truly hate that it could have been avoided if more thought had been given to how dangerous what she was doing really was. This movie failed to convince me of the importance of her work as a whole. At what price do you need to do investigative journalism?
I felt she went to the most vague brothel she could find to tell a story and only in the process did she find a bigger story as it unraveled for her. I feel a better reason to have done this work would have been to start from a strong suspicion that there was something very powerful about to implode in the faces of all concerned and she was there to stop it. Unless she was one with agency to burst a whole ring of traffickers, one story was really not enough, so I really was lost with understanding her motivation and what she imagined she could accomplish.
Other things I thought were too much were the chain smoking. Omoni Oboli, who acted the role of a former prostitute and now trafficker was going from one puff to another, non stop. It was so unbelievably hectic, I just wanted her to breathe some fresh air. Also, I thought ₴ 1200 was too little an amount for her to be collecting as payment from those girls. Well, unless she was trafficking 15 girls per week or month.
There is nudity in this movie which is really a first for me, unless I've late to the party, but I believe this is the first time I've seen bums and outlines of boobs in a Nollywood movie. That really added to the realistic portrayal of what these girls are forced to swear by and to with native doctors before they travel abroad.
In general though, this movie had potential and was well executed by its cast, but suffered this major flaw of being a silly story of a hopeful but very naive journalist who ends up being trafficked herself. It's quite pityful to not be sensible as you go to high risk situations. Life happens.
I would not recommend this movie if like me you get upset by lack of preparedness because I still am quite annoyed.
That's it from me for now.