The movie was premiered on Friday 8th August 2014 at the Odeon Cinema Greenwich.
St Mary showcases some of Nollywood’s best and versatile actors and actresses including Zack Orji, Ekpeyong Bassey-Inyang, Frank Dallas, Joseph Benjamin, Scott Roberts, Benita Nzeribe, Paul Obazele, Ibinabo Fiberesima, Toyin Alausa, Sefiya Dadiya, and Caren Agwambo. The movie was written by Danijo Efe Young from an original story by Chike Brian. It was produced by Obi Anthony Osotule and directed by Matthias Obahiagbon.
The premiere was hosted by Panache Entertainment and present on the red carpet were the Executive Producer of the movie Darlington Agha, the Associate Producer Keppy Ekpeyong Bassey, the director Matthias Obahiagbon, actor and production manager Frank Dallas, Zack Orji, Benita Nzeribe, Princess Peace Essien (CEO Panache Global Entertainment), Prince Tade Olusile, Anthony Monjaro, Ruke Amata, Toyin Moore, Pauline Long, Nelson Spyk, Fatima Jabe Bio, Toksy Bello, captains of the UK Nollywood industry and members of the public.
Storyline: The moviecentres on the negative implication of pornography, sex and human trafficking. It follows the story of Tejiri, who uncovers a massive web of conspiracy on human trafficking and crime on board St. Mary, an oil vessel on voyage bound for Amsterdam. The well helmed movie also narrates the story of Nonye who gets lured by a Facebook confidant and friend into a seeming breakthrough in her singing career. Her excitement banishes caution and her world is thrown into a spiraling string of turmoil and disaster. She lands in a cabal’s dragnet stripping her away from the safety of family and imposing a terrifying adventure amidst her pleas for survival.
The movie also exposes the exploits of Don Daddy, an epitome of success whose massive business empire is built on extraction and sales of human organs. His tentacles spread out to the frontiers of establishment and he lives his fairy tale life in all the perks of comfort with a consortium of agents luring young girls with a promise of better life in Europe until he attracts the small framed daughter of Professor Ojukwu whose search pulls Don Daddy’s empire down. As the narrative progresses, the scars never heal, the pain disappear and the memories linger painfully. The story taxies off as a story of degradation, torture, pain and loss. It captures the travails of man’s innocence compromised in his aspirations.
In my view as a movie critic and reviewer, I commend the writer for telling such a storyline. The storyline actually reflects what happens in our society, but which people refuse to narrate when they are victims because of fear of repercussions. It is interesting that it is the high and mighty in the society for example an ex-governor that get involved in such atrocities. Such ills need to be wiped out from our society and efforts need to be made between governments of countries by sharing intelligence to find out the brains behind human trafficking and deal with the root of the problem. I would have like to see the movie end with some form of collaboration between the Nigerian and Netherlands governments to deal with the problem even if it was only by writing some lines at the end of the movie.
For the storyline therefore, I would be awarding 8.5 out of a possible 10
Picture Quality: Throughout the movie, there was a consistency with the picture quality. I have seen Nollywood movies with sharper pictures, but none the less the picture quality was good. I must commend those responsible for the pictures and i believe with a larger budget and better equipment, the pictures could have been even better. Not much to say, i award for the picture quality a score of 9 out of a possible 10
Sound: The sound started good although the music overshadowed the voice of the actors in some cases. There were also echoes in the sound in some of the scenes. The sound quality then went downhill and became atrocious to say the least. There was a lot of interference. It sounded as if the microphones were so close and there was nothing to prevent unnecessary noise. The sound was so bad in some cases we could not hear clearly what was being said.
It is a pity that for such a promising movie, the sound was that bad. It is with regret, but in performing my role as a Nollywood critic and reviewer that I award a 1 out of a possible 10 for sound.
Cast: As stated earlier, the movie showcased some big names in Nollywood and upcoming actors and actresses. I think the balance was right and the experience of the likes of Zack Orji, Keppy Ekpeyong and the likes of Joseph Benjamin made the movie look real. However, personally, i would not have cast the Captain for that role as he was neither here or there and did not do the role much justice. I think some of the girls although they were playing support roles overacted their parts and while I think the Kenyan lady in the movie played her role properly as one of the suppliers of girls, I think some of the other ladies more or less acted like they crammed their lines. Out of a possible 10, for the cast i would award a 7.
Overall performance: I am a stickler for excellence when it comes to Nollywood movies and I can be very picky at times. We are in an age of advanced technology and seeing the police doing surveillance with a mobile phone is not 21st century. I would have preferred not to show such a scene or at least pretend to use better technology.
I think on the balance of probabilities, the movie was a good one and the atmosphere was cordial, however in my view, before premiering a movie the director needs to watch the whole movie and do an assessment. A private viewing may also help see some of the issues like the sound that have been raised here.
In the current state of the movie, it would be hypocritical of me to recommend the movie mainly because of the sound. This can be corrected and once this has been done, I would gladly recommend the movie.
In totality, i would award this movie in its current state a 3 star out of a possible 5+ stars. However, this grading can improve if I watch the movie again and the sound issue has been corrected.
Watch the trailer:
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