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Onye Egwu (2023) - aka Onyeegwu

‘Onye Egwu’ (2023) is a Nollywood mess

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by

MJ-A
in

Nollywood, the Nigerian film industry, churns out content in a matter of weeks. Onye Egwu is a film from Uche Jombo studios, and while the production is of fair quality, the story is a mess. There are too many characters with unrelated stories, and the filmmakers tie together the 2 main themes with very thin thread. In the credits, they list hundreds of extras across each filming location, which I assume was their strategy to get more Nigerians to watch this poor excuse of a film.

The Story

There are 2 stories in this film. The main character is Alex Mbanefo, who is known as Onyegwu (“the Player”). At 29 years old, Alex (Zubby Michael) has had too many sprained ankles. The doctor tells him one more, and he will end up in a wheelchair for life. The club terminates his contract. There is a lot of nonsense about his estranged wife having cursed his spirit into a bottle, including a cameo by the Prophetess Toyin Abraham. But once Alex gets past blaming a curse, his mother and assistant lead him to the next stage of his life.

In the other half of the story, poor young Nedu (Kayode Ojuolape) and his wealthy royal-lineage buddy Uduak (Eric Emeka) play on the same team. Nedu has talent, but his mother doesn’t have the money to advance his football career; she wants him to focus on education.

In the last part of the film, Alex announces that he is scouting for the next Onyegwu in Nedu’s town. The local pastor preaches about this event, saying it is brought by God. He says to bring the boys forward with offerings to buy special prayers, anointing, and the washing of feet. In the best line of the film, he declares “This is the transport to Old Trafford.”

There is some nonsense where, unknown to Uduak, his ambitious mom poisons Nedu’s energy drink, telling her son that “In this life, you must never allow another person to take your shine.”

After the poisoning, Nedu struggles to appear in the town’s exhibition game. After Nedu performs well, his mother conducts a prayer circle to see if God wants him to embark on a pro career. In the closing credits, Alex tearfully announces his retirement, new career, and new client.

In Conclusion

I summarized the story to make it more palatable, leaving out all the little side stories with minor characters. Maybe the over the top histrionics in these minor scenes are supposed to be comedy or a statement on Nigerian life and people, but I do not know how to interpret such scenes nor find them entertaining. I found a Nigerian review that wrote: “The film is a satirical take on contemporary Nigerian society, exploring themes of tradition, superstition, and modernity.” Huh. Missed that.

I found the female characters in Onye Egwu to be 1-dimensional sexist stereotypes. All of the women are unsympathetic harpies, ball-busters, witches, or sex objects. So I was dumbfounded to realize that Director Uche Jombo is a woman, with many Nollywood actress credits, and that she also portrays Nedu’s mom. It reminds me of When Saturday Comes, a sadly sexist women-directed football film.

There is also very little soccer in this film.

3 Soccer Movie Mom Rating = 3

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