The movie IYORE is based on the history and culture of the people of Benin, Nigeria. It was directed by Frank Rajah Arase and was produced by Kwame Boadu. The main casts are: Rita Dominic, Joseph Benjamin, Okwa Shaznay, Yemi Blaq, Paul Obazele and Bukky Wright among others.
It is a story of Osarugue (Rita Dominic) who is married to Ovie (Yemi Blaq) but is in love with her childhood sweetheart, Prince Azuwa (Joseph Benjamin). It is all fun and games until the realization that as the crown prince, Prince Azuwa is only allowed to marry a princess which does not fit Osarugue’s identity. Basically, the movie explores a tragic love story centered on the rich culture of pre-colonial Benin to the present day Benin as well as exposing us to the idea of reincarnation.
The story began in the past when the Benin Kingdom was flourishing. The community was blessed with the riches of life and the King had three wives. Been the contemporary Benin Kingdom, He was also blessed with three virgins whose only plight in life was to live and die for the throne.
Until one of the virgins, Amenze (Okawa Shaznay), fell in love with a prince and lost her virginity. She attempted fleeing the kingdom with the love of her life when she discovered she was pregnant but had to flee alone because the prince was caught and killed. And unfortunately for her she died during childbirth.
In the future, Osarugwe a well versed history schoolteacher is in love with Prince Azuwa which was well noticed by her husband Ovie. Who out of jealousy threw her out on the basis of infidelity and she had to move in with the prince. After a while, she married the prince and got pregnant which drove her ex-husband to rage with the accusation of infidelity. Ovie was then accidentally killed by Osarugwe after a series of scuffle and Azuwa took the fall for his pregnant wife and went to jail.
During her study research, Osarugwe discovered an eerie connection to her ancestors of the Benin Kingdom. Which not only turned out to be a history to what was actually going on, it turned out that they are somewhat of a reincarnation to the ancestors as well. This made Osarugwe set out to change the course of her life.
In my own opinion, the performance of each cast was what made the movie excellent. They all brought their A-game and credibility into their roles and portrayed their characters perfectly.
The story is as interesting as it’s structure was confusing. The flipping from past to the present and vise versa was awkwardly confusing without detail or visible explanation. Let’s take Okawa Shaznay’s character into consideration, she was dead in a scene and in the next scene she was seen alive. This called for lots of rewinding in other to understand why and it was too much of an effort to follow the story.
Maybe the filmmakers should have shot the scenes about the past in black and white. That would have made the era and flashbacks clearer to the audience. And a simple change in hairstyle would have been great in differentiating the roles Okawa shaznay played.
Talking about Okawa Shaznay, she does remind me of Jackie Appiah, I do sometimes mistake Shaznay for Jackie. And they both sort of look alike. Speaking of reincarnation, maybe they were sisters in another life.
The production of Iyore was hype, sound and video quality were decent. Costumes, make-up, and locations promoted the films authenticity. The movie was really beautiful and pleasing to the eye despite a few hiccups. The Director and the producer of this movie did a very great Job. Also, the casts were great in speaking the Benin language and using native proverbs were appropriate despite their difference in language.
See the trailer here
