(Credits: Far Out / Sundance Film Festival)

Nigerian director C.J. Obasi, known professionally as ‘Fiery’ Obasi, was something of an overnight sensation when he left computer programming and began his filmmaking career. His debut film, the horror tale Ojuju, won film festival awards internationally when it premiered in 2014. He received even more positive attention with the crime drama O-Town and the Netflix feature Lionheart. It was in 2018 that Obasi’s penchant for the unusual broke through with Hello, Rain, an adaptation of Nnedi Okorafor’s fantasy short story Hello, Moto, written in the genre sometimes known as Afro-futurism. This breakthrough ultimately led to his latest production, the boldly unconventional, reality-based ethno-fantasy Mami Wata.

When Mami Wata premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Obasi admitted he had no idea how the festival audiences would react since he was aware ��no one had seen an African film like this before”. The response from festival audiences and critics alike was overwhelmingly positive, earning the film a Sundance Jury Prize and high praise across the film festival circuit, leading to its US cinematic release on September 29th.

Obasi was not wrong about the film’s uniqueness. The storyline is entirely modern but based on central African folklore, which it treats with both familiarity and respect, although not with unquestioning acceptance. The script seamlessly mixes the mundane with the mythological and presents characters which are at once ordinary, flawed humans and representatives of greater concepts. It is a fable of sorts, which deals with the conflicts between tradition and progress in the context of present-day Nigeria, taking on the dilemma of accepting modernisation and the benefits of technology while refusing, if possible, the cultural colonisation that typically goes with it. The story begins with the simple troubles of the small village of Iyi, which has retained a traditional devotion to the water goddess known as Mami Wata and gradually expands to take in larger issues.

The central character in the film’s first act is an older woman known as Mama Efe, played with a confident, understated impact by Rita Edochie. Efe acts as an intermediary between the inhabitants and the sea goddess. She also fills the role of leader and advisor, the society being slightly matriarchal, in contrast to outside, colonial communities – a fact which is subtly played with over the course of the film. She is assisted by her daughters and apprentices Prisca (Evelyne Ily Juhen) and Zinwe (Uzoamaka Aniunoh), the two women representing modern scepticism and devotion to spiritual tradition, respectively. When Efe’s intervention is unable to stop an epidemic of childhood diseases, the village becomes divided, and a rebellion is further ignited by outside influences, leading from dispute to eventual armed conflict in a tense, often brutal feud with a strange and surprising outcome.

But it is the look and tone of the film, and its unique manner of telling the story, that stands out in Mami Wata, leading to awards and critical praise, particularly for its cinematography (by Brazilian technician Lilis Soares) and production design. The unusual choice of filming entirely in black & white combines with excellent camera work and carefully used lighting to tell much of the story without words. Water is significant to the story, and images of the ocean, so important to the inhabitants of Iyi, recur throughout the film, sometimes as a peaceful background, at other times looming and vaguely sinister, as the scene requires. Perfectly lit close-ups of characters’ faces are expressive and often magnificent, made more so with traditional white facial markings and seashell ornaments around the face. These additions come across as mere familiar decorations in some scenes, and in others, through the careful use of light and physical arrangement, give the individual an uncanny or otherworldly appearance, according to the tone of each scene.

The film begins in an odd, anti-dramatic way, suggesting that it may even consist of still shots with voice-over lines rather than actual acting in an effectively attention-grabbing introduction. In some of the earlier scenes of solemn discussion, when the characters are still being introduced, faces are shown in a deliberately simple, static way reminiscent of the earliest silent films, along with a temporarily restrained acting style. The characters seem to be shown as symbols before they are portrayed as human beings, although as the story and the cast of characters expand, they quickly gain individual personalities and are seen as all too human. However, the contrasting images of the sea remain darkly mysterious almost to the very end. 

So much is shown visually in this film that the actual dialogue is often of secondary importance – fortunately, since the spoken lines are almost entirely in a local dialect, with subtitles provided. Facial expressions, mannerisms, minor details of dress, and wordless eye contact provide information that words leave out. For example, the fact that a seemingly friendly outsider is wearing a crucifix is not mentioned, but it is an important visual signal in a region where traditional African religions struggle to remain viable. Similarly, in a largely matriarchal community, fine points of certain men’s behaviour and speech towards women are a subtle red flag marking a potential threat to cultural stability. The spiritual realities which are part of the story are kept extremely understated, almost lost during the more suspenseful and violent developments, but present throughout in visual hints.

While Obasi’s fable involves a straightforward battle between two world-views, the script avoids being completely one-sided. At certain times, the case for change, progress, and welcoming the outside world is made convincingly and sympathetically; at other times, the darker aspects of progress and the unfortunate strings attached are portrayed. The conclusion ties together aspects of both viewpoints on the brink of disaster so that they can work together for mutual benefit and mutual survival – leading to a finale which is distinctly African, fantastical, and totally unexpected. Mami Wata is an absorbing, peculiar, beautiful and strikingly original piece of cinema from a highly promising young filmmaker.