My Mother is a Witch is a Nollywood movie directed by Niyi Akinmolayan. It tells the story of Imuetiyan, portrayed by Efe Irele, who returns from London upon hearing the news that her mother, Adesua (Mercy Aigbe), has passed away. However, the news is a ploy to persuade her to return to the country to meet her mother in a sad state. The rest of the movie reveals the reasons she abandoned her Adesua and the efforts made to reconcile them after years of unforgiveness.
I thought the plot was fresh. However, I didn’t like how Adesua was demonised, which is a common thing Nollywood does to justify the outrageous actions of another character. In this movie, Adesua is portrayed as a wicked mother who made life hell for Imuetiyan until she eventually fled to London, where she made a name for herself as a fashion designer. The movie first makes you dislike the daughter and feel sorry for the mother. All of a sudden, subsequent scenes shift the blame to the mother as you are made to understand the daughter’s motive. As a viewer, you will have no choice but to wish them a common ground, which is forgiveness.
One style of storytelling used by the directors of this movie is the type where one character narrates their ordeal to another, explaining the reason for their decisions. The directors should have just allowed the show to play on from how the mother maltreated Imuetiyan to how they got separated until the point of seeking forgiveness. That is straightforward, instead of the rigmarole method used.
The acting in this movie is a little bit too pushed. Mercy Johnson was okay for the role of the younger self of the mother. Someone older should have been used to portray the older version seeking her daughter’s forgiveness. That would have been better, rather than the unrealistic makeup used to make Mercy Aigbe appear old. To me, the old character she portrayed didn’t seem convincing. Don’t get me wrong. There were moments when the actress came with her A game and stole the show. But that was mostly when she played the younger mother.
Efe Irele did well portraying her character. She had the right facial expression, especially that of someone who wants to get done with the burial of a person she never liked and get back to her business. She oozed the pain that made Imuetiyan the person she became. What made her performance stand out is how she showed that, despite how Imuetiyan felt, she was emotionally detached from her mother, something deep within her still had a soft spot for the old woman she considered a witch.
Other acts included Neo Akpofure and Timini Egbuson, who performed well. At some point, I thought Egbuson, who starred as a doctor, would engage in a romantic relationship with Imuetiyan. If the directors knew they were not going to create a romantic relationship between his character and Imuetiyan, then Egbuson wasn’t the right actor for the role of a doctor. They should have used someone more mature than him, so that viewers wouldn’t anticipate anything romantic between the doctor and Imuetiyan.
Technically, My Mother is a Witch has some flaws and can’t be placed in the category of a high-budget movie. The picture quality is not impressive, though not bad. The scene at the airport in London looks good. I suppose a different cinematographer handled the shoot, as the rest of the movie doesn’t look as good as that scene. The rain scene between the doctor and Imuetiyan was almost convincing, if not for the fact that I watched the film with a sceptical eye. That enabled me to see that the rain was only falling on them and not behind them. The rain’s intensity was also shaky, making it look unnatural.
‘My Mother is a Witch’ is one movie I would recommend because it revolves around the theme of forgiveness, which we all need to survive in this world. It utilises English, Pidgin English, and Edo languages. It receives a rating of 6.5/10.
