Review of London Premiere of Maureen Okafor's Purity of Heart

The film Purity of Heart premiered on Saturday 2nd November 2013 at the Lighthouse in Camberwell. To my knowledge this is the first christian Nollywood movie Premier here in the UK. As usual the red carpet featured the cast and crew of the movie, celebrities from industry including celebrity fashion designer Adebayo Jones, actors, producers and memberss of the Nollywood Movie industry in the UK, Pastors and Ministers and members of the public.

The premiere being a christian movie started with Praise and Worship and also a special number rendered by celebrity fashion designer Adebayo Jones backed by Femi Ologundana on keyboard.

Purity of Heart is a movie about betrayal and murder carried out among church members especially an ordained Deacon in the Church. Its appeal is about how rewarding forgiveness is, when a widow decides to not only forgive the man who killed her husband but even offers to pay for a contract he executed for her even after she realised he killed her husband.   

The movie featured several Nollywood stars including Theodora Ibekwe-Oyebade, Yvonne Hayes, Danny Erskine, Christianah Awotayo, Nnenna Ani, Ayo Oyebade and Theo Anguah. It was produced by Maureen Ukamaka Okafor and Nancy Okoji and directed by Dr Ayo Coker.

In her message about the movie, Maureen stated that the movie was inspired by the Holy Spirit. She stated that God had asked her to fast for 40 days and to do the movie. She said that from conception God was in the movie and that the movie was a means of seeing God and standing in His presence. She stated that we can only be purified by the Word of God. She referred to faith in God, forgiveness and the wisdom of God stating that supernatural wisdom supercedes every form of wisdom. She was very appreciative of all the cast, crew and everyone involved in the movie including family, stating that they suffered and went through a lot to make the movie. She finally appreciated everyone who came to watch the premiere. 

I must commend the Director and producers foe being obedient and bold to come out with such a heavenly vision. Although there were issues in the movie which I would be addressing below, an effort has been made and a production that could be watched has been produced. I understand that making a movie takes guts and I must commend them for being novel by producing a solely christian Holy Spirit movie and premiering it.

Starting from this movie, I would talk about each of my criteria and give an individual mark and the average mark over 10 would be the final score.

Sound: The sound quality could have been much better,There were some scenes where there were hissing and buzzing sounds and even external interference. In some scenes as well, one could not hear what was said. One of the Nollywood actors told me that this was regrettable as a member of the cast invited friends and was a bit dissapointed with the sound. People speaking on the background when George was confessing to Mary about her husband's death This could have edited out. While this is a major issue in any movie, I believe it can still be corrected and for the sound, I award 5.5 out of a possible 10.

Picture Quality: I had nothing to fault with the picture quality and that seemed to be the views of all the people I spoke to. Nothing to add. I give the full marks of 10 out of 10

Story line: For someone watching the movie for the first time and having no clue about what it was about, it took a long time to know what the theme of the story was. In a movie, in the first 15 to 20 minutes, the audience should have an idea of the theme or what the story is about even though there might be surprises and the story may not necessarily end the way people expect. To me and to those I spoke to, this was an issue and should be addressed in future. For the story line, in spite of the above, i award 6.5 out of a possible 10

Cast: I would like to start by commending all the cast for their part in the movie. Let me start by commending Yvonne who played Mary for making the story look so real. I wish someone was giving me money, I definitely would not refuse it. I would also like to mention Ayo Oyebade, who although he played a minor role of the Insurance man played the role to point and his diction was second to none. However, I would not be doing this review and the Producer and Director justice if I do not mention the negatives.

I believe there was some over acting in some cases. Sometimes, unfortunately, I felt that Ben the lead actor over exaggerated the role, same thing with the Deacon. In fact sometimes, it looked as if he forgot his lines. Also there was a scene when they discovered someone had low sperm count, the pastor in my view over acted that part. As a Pentecostal pastor who believes in divine healing, the reaction was over rated for low sperm count. I appreciate that these are new actors to the Nollywood industry and can get better if they try and play the part and convince their audience. Overall for the cast and their roles in telling the story, I award 6 out of a possible 10.

Overall performance: For a Christian movie, the turn out was encouraging. There were scenes where people laughed, but I believe that in the end the message of God forgiving us our trespasses and the need for us to forgive others who trespass against us was  clearly sent and everyone who watched the premiere got the message loud and clear. I therefore award the overall performance an 8 out of 10

In total, I have awarded this movie 36 out of a possible 50 which gives it 7.2 out of 10. I would like to say a big well done to all that were involved in this movie and encourage them that if they take heed to the above comments, not only would they be sharing a message from above, but also they would stand tall in the ladder of Nollywood Movies.

Would I recommend this movie, my answer is yes.

Watch the trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2CRPzshNfc&feature=youtu.be&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Ds2CRPzshNfc%26feature%3Dyoutu.be&app=desktop