If you want to have a feel of how Nigerians lived under military regimes, I’ll advise you to go see ‘A Green Fever’ currently streaming at #5 on Prime Video. Though the movie only displays a subtle nature of what is obtainable when uniformed men rule, it is enough to make Gen Z Nigerians rethink their clamour for the return of military rule.
‘A Green Fever’, directed by Taiwo Ogunjobi, is about a young man, Kunmi Braithwaite (Temilolu Fosudo) who infiltrates a well-guarded house of an army officer, Colonel Aliyu Bashiru (William Benson), warms his way into the mistress’s heart and almost fools the officer into thinking he was just an architect who needed help for his sick daughter.
The star that stole the show is William Benson who displayed fierce acting far above the movie’s level. His aura represented the same way military officers behaved when they held power in Nigeria. I could tell, being someone who grew up among military men in the 80s and 90s.
However, the directors of the movie did something I dislike about Nollywood movies. They demonized Colonel Adamu by making him a woman-beater and also revealing that he was behind the several miscarriages suffered by his young lover Mathilda (Ruby Precious Okezie). The information is not needed because the Colonel’s participation in a coup was enough to make him never have any fans among viewers. Therefore, there was no need to demonize him.
Fosudo also did well in playing his role because he made me think Kunmi was truly a man seeking help for his daughter until his true intentions unfolded. However, I didn’t like that the directors made him stutter too much while he conversed with the fierce-looking Colonel. The first stuttering was enough to make viewers aware of his fear for the officer, even though it was all a pretense.
Mathilda’s role wasn’t a good one. She was too soft and emotional for a lady whom a military officer was having extra-marital affairs with.
On the technical aspect, first of all, the movie is a low-budget film that made use of only two locations – a house and a forest. The majority of the scenes were shot inside the house. Even though the directors worked on a low budget, I think they spent too much on lighting to the detriment of the movie. Inside the living room of the house, I could count about seven practical lights. This made the look of the scenes bright but not overexposed, thereby reducing the amount of tension that the living room scene was known for. If there was a little darkness, a better contrast would have been created to express fear in Kunmi’s face as he spoke with Colonel Adamu.
One thing I dislike about the movie is that it doesn’t look cinematic. The color grading looks regular, not far from Rec709. In post-production, the shadows should have been dropped well enough, which would have reduced the brightness introduced by the lighting of the scenes. I won’t delve much into technicalities, but I hope the directors read this and improve on their work.
I’ll give the movie 5/10 for depicting a good story despite working on a low budget. It is worth watching, but not when there is a tonne of blockbusters available.
