"SLC-S25/W3-Movie Snapshots|Hidden Gems"

Greetings and welcome to my blog. Today I am glad to be a part of this weeks movie Challenge on hidden gems. Where we dive into the world of beautiful of beautiful but underrated movies and what could be done to make them more visible. For this purpose of this challenge, I am going to be sticking with Nigeria movies.

Mention 5 lesser-known or underrated movie you have seen before.

Well, I am not much of a movie person and I love to watch movies as a way to unwind but that doesn’t mean that I don’t know how to binge on interesting movies. Somehow I am not even so much in sync with popular movies and that’s how I discovered these hidden gems.

Well, let’s look at five of them that are quite a banger but somehow are under the radar and weren’t seen as should be.

Movie 1: O Town

Screenshots from google

The first on my list is O-Town. O town is a popular way of calling Owerri I’m the eastern part of Nigeria. More like an informal and kiddy way to make reference to the growing city. O-town is a movie that was produced in 2015 by C.J Obasi. Shot in the very city of owerri. It is a movie about a young man who happens to bear the same name as me “Peace”. It’s a pity that his name and character doesn’t match as he wanted to be a street ruler and let things revolve around him.

He wants to rule the street and be the biggest boss in town. Well, his passion and desires got the best of him as he got into trouble with the bad gangs, criminal and the people who are more dangerous than himself in the streets. He bit more than he could chew and he finally learnt that the street is not an easy as he thought. This movie reached youths who have inordinate passions for the wrong things to have a change of heart and seek no more noble passions.

Movie 2: Kasala

Screenshot from YouTube

In our pidgin language kasala means trouble. So when people say that kasala don burst, they mean that there is trouble and this gives you a picture of what this movie is about. A funny movie that was produced in 2018, by Ema Edosio. It is the story of four boys who took their uncles car and went for a ride without his permission and that kasala bursted when they bashed the car. Their uncle will soon get back and they have just hours to raise the money to fix the car. You needed to see the manner of things they did just to raise money but it also shows how they were able to stick together as one in their struggle times.

Movie 3: The Delivery Boy

Screenshot from goggle

The delivery boy is a very touching story of a young boy who was sent to commit suicide bombing which was supposed to also take his life but along the line, he had a change of heart and ran away from the assignment. That night of his escape he met a prostitute who also had her own fair share of life struggles and trauma and they spent time talking about their pains and the traumas they’ve been through and planned for a way to get out of their present situations for a better future. It was produced in 2018, by Adekunle "Nodash" Adejuyigbe.

Movie 4: Eyimofe (This Is My Desire)

Screenshot from goggle.

This is another beautiful piece that was produced in 2020, by Arie & Chuko Esiri and it the touching story of Rosa and mofe. Two struggling individuals who have a desire to travel out of their country to pursue a better life but their desires seemed far fetched as they kept having their desires being blocked from one problem to the other, one family issues to another and one bad luck to another. It painted a very vivid picture of some of the struggles people who are struggling to survive face when they want to embark of this type of projects.

Movie 5: Dazzling mirage

Screenshot from goggle

This is a beautiful and touching story about a young woman who had sickle cell disease and was trying to see how she could live a normal live of working, been happy and falling in love but she always got judged because of her condition which also threatened her relationship because of how people see sickle cell disease. The movie shows the pains, the courage and the strength it takes to live with this type of disease that the society does not really understand. It was produced by Tunde Kelani in 2014.

These movies were very good in the genre they touched but they were really below the radar of being popular.

Discuss your reasons for saying these movies you have mentioned are lesser known or underrated movies.
There are a couple of factors that make movies unpopular but I’d mention some of these reasons as perculiar to each movie.

• For the first movies O town, It was a very creative movie that is also deep and serious but not many people heard about it or even saw it and this is because it was different from the regular Nigeria movie. The genre touched wasn’t what people were used to.

• Kasala was more of a hype problem or I’d say marketing problems, it was a good movie and would have gotten the audience if it was properly marketed. Many people didn’t know about it too or heard about it.

• The third movie the delivery boy though it was a deep and emotional movie was not the kind of movie that people were used to for catching fun. Moreover it didn’t have any popular actors and also didn’t get alot of advertising hence the unpopularity.

• The fourth movie Eyimofe was actually shown in international festivals but yet not many Nigerians know about it be it because it was serious and a slow movie. It didn’t have that Nigerian loud vibe.

• The fifth movie Dazzilng mirage was a health based movie and most people do not like to watch health movies unless it has so much noise and publicity. It’s not the usual love story line of movies that people like.

These are some of the reasons why these gems of a movie was under the radar and didn’t make so much fame.

What do you think can be done to make these movies better known or valued more.

These movies are really beautiful and very impacting movies and a couple of things can be done to make them more popular or more valued and some of those things includes;

• Proper or more advertisement on social media. The social media is a world of its own and things properly advertised gets more audience than not. So this is an avenue to get them more known and valued.
• They can be put on very popular movie showing sites like Netflix, showmax and even prime TV.
• More words about these movies can be spread through the use of social media influencers, teachers and even health workers for the one that’s health inclined.
• Lastly, these movies can be shown in schools, movies centers and events or festivals.

Thank you for coming down this lane with me. Hope you had fun reading through these interesting movies review.