By Adewole Ajala
After Michael Jackson’s This is It and 2012, a late entrant to the list of notable films for 2009 would be Jude Idada and Lucky Ejim’s the Tenant.
The title gingers expectations for a straightforward film with a few scenes, minimal diversions and an organic plot but these are dashed after two hours of a highly enjoyable flick.
Maybe if Tim the landlord (Kenn Taylor) had allowed Obinna (Lucky Ejim) to swallow his cocktail of pills in the opening scene (Lucky Ejim) perhaps it would have boiled down to a simple denouement. But fortunately both trade favours ushering the audience into a black hole of lies, incest, deception and familial intrigues. This is not left to them alone as a sprinkling of stars litter the film.
The plot revolves around Obinna- one of the numerous Nigerians in Canada seeking greener pastures. He has been given 30 days by the immigration authorities to leave the country or risk being deported. His leaving will amount to failure as his impoverished family in Nigerian have invested all they had in his foreign sojourn in the hope that the garb of poverty will be lifted from their backs- A ray of hope which came after his father’s sack from the railways and his endless search for a job that never came.
Sadly the hopes have given way to a string of unfortunate events, the latest being his discovery of his girlfriend hopping into bed with another man.
This caps his misfortunes and he decides to end his woeful existence. He is on the verge of killing himself when his dilemma comes to the attention of his chain-smoking Canadian landlord during a routine demand for the month’s overdue rent and both strike a deal that will benefit both of them.
As a former immigration officer his landlord can pull some strings to get him out of his current dilemma but the Nigerian must get his estranged daughter Nicole (Jennifer Pogue) to see him before his terminal illness whisks him to the great beyond.
The task seems easy enough but his stripper daughter is a ‘scatter brain’ and even when Obinna is fortunate to surmount her physical challenge, he must still overcome the glut of lies and prevarications which maroon him in a labyrinth of psychological trauma as both father and daughter have been economical with the real truth concerning their estrangement. Their reticence later gives way to light when both come clean on their corrupted love which fuelled incest and a twisted plot rife with abuse and hatred.
There was also a baby in the brevity of their single sexual experience but the desire of Tim to disappear with the consequence of their sin morphs into an unforgiving daughter.
Unfortunately a bewildered Obinna is in the firing line of the caustic episodes and effusiveness. Time is running out for him but he still manages to overcome this culture shock while trying to reconcile both parties. These go in sync with a personal battle with his ex-girlfriend and her new catch. Both are recurring decimals in his sour existence but he prefers to blame her father, a Nigerian minister for his fate as his dreams and those of other promising Nigerian graduates have been stripped of a colourful future by corrupt politician.
One might lament his pawn status at some point and the tendency to go back and forth between father and daughter like a ball. But apart from being antagonist and apologist for the duo there are some laughs in the Tom and Jerry relationship existing between the dramatis personae as the unpredictability between the characters pushes not just Obinna’s patience but those of the audience to breaking point.
This is the crux of the flick embellished with Canadian and Nigerian scenes before it finally grinds to an unexpected conclusion. which an unexpected but inevitable denouements to proceedings which leaves everyone with a smile on their lips whether dead or alive.
Sub plots also shed light into the lot of Nigerians living abroad but they are not alone in their caustic episodes as the whites also have bouts of heartbreak.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMcz06dZq8s[/youtube] (Click to watch trailer of The Tenant)
Already the film has a duo of awards for Audience Choice and Best Feature Film at the Hollywood Black Film Festival 2009 and Moving Image Film Festival 2008 respectively. It was produced and directed by Jude Idada and Lucky Ejim with Dare Fasasi a.k.a Baba Dee as co-director.
