Saturday April 28, 8:30pm; Sunday April 29, 3:00pm at Regal Cinemas Battery Park
World Premiere
Section: Special Screenings
Family, history, and the legacies that stem from the connected three are key in the development of most every civilization on Earth. Yet, one could specify that for the African diaspora community, due to chattel slavery – from which there still has not been any true recovery – that family takes on an even more special meaning.
But that doesn’t mean that family is always your best option.
The whirlwind created in first time feature film director Faraday Okoro’s “Nigerian Prince” is born out of two young men desperate to find their way in the world. Immature and obstinate, Eze is a first generation Nigerian-American teenager whose mother (Ebbe Bassey, “Ties That Bind”, “Say Grace Before Drowning”) sends him to Nigeria to live with his Aunt against his will under the guise of him learning more about ‘where he came from,’ though the feeling is there is something more.
His cousin, Pius, is a desperate Nigerian Prince scammer and con artist, living in a constant state of danger.
In a constant state of culture shock, including the unheard of American notions of no showers or 24-hour electricity, Eze battles his Aunt Grace (the always wonderful Tina Mba) at every turn, even after she tells him to stay away from her wayward son Pius following their shocking initial encounter. But determined to get enough money for a return ticket back to America, Eze teams up with Pius to scam unsuspecting foreigners.
Yet what Eze is ignorant to (though, he is pretty ignorant to most everything) is the danger that Pius is involved in, leading Eze down a path he may not be able to escape from. Meanwhile Pius, in search of a way out of ‘the game’, though obviously in need of family despite all the good faith he has squandered away, has a definite love for his newly found cousin, but we’re always wondering if that will be enough for him to not sell Eze out.
Multilayered, and working off of numerous influences, “Nigerian Prince” is a film with familiar qualities but has never been seen before. What initially felt like a story about a wayward family, or even a coming-of-age tale, though it is also those, turns out to be more a grifter story. Pius is much, much more than an online Nigerian Prince scammer – his cons are expertly devised and his fortitude is remarkable, as is the danger he is under. Aware of the psychological play in great con and heist films, Okoro intentionally set out to make the film to be subversive. With that, “Nigerian Prince” takes on the tone of more serious con artist tales, like “Confidence” (2003, James Foley) but with the familial tone coupled with hazardous circumstances, brings it closer to “The Grifters” (1990, Stephen Frears).
Chinaza Uche also clearly understands the psychological nature of the con game, and plays Pius with equal amounts charm and franticness. With a growing acting career (you may have also seen him in “Mother of George” (2013, Andrew Dosunmu)) the hope is that now we will also see him in much more. Antonio J. Bell (OWN TV’s “Greenleaf”) plays Eze in full self-indulgent fashion, yet also portrays Eze to possess more complexity than what is on the surface.
The biggest takeaway from “Nigerian Prince” is that is it a more complex film that what the audience is initially presented with. With edge-of-you-seat danger, including from corrupt Police Chief Smart (Bimbo Manuel), and an at-home feel that puts viewers squarely into an aspect of Nigerian life that western viewers are unused to experiencing, “Nigerian Prince” needs to have a long life in cinemas and beyond.
Nigerian-American director Faraday Okoro, able to shoot this film with more than the originally intended micro-budget due to his winning the AT&T Presents: Untold Stories program — in partnership with the Tribeca Film Institute, was already due for a bright future in filmmaking, and this first feature will hopefully cement that.
BaL Festival Rating: 5/5
Director: Faraday Okoro
Writers: Faraday Okoro & Andrew Long
Genre: Narrative
Country: USA and Nigeria
Runtime: 110 min.
With Antonio J. Bell, Chinaza Uche, Tina Mba, Bimbo Manuel, Toyin Oshinaike, Craig Stott. A DirecTV release.
Produced by Oscar Hernandez, Bose Oshin, Faraday Okoro
Executive Producers: Spike Lee, Sam Pollard, Biyi Bandele
The 2018 Tribeca Film Festival runs from April 18 – 29 in New York City
Follow Film & TV Editor Curtis Caesar John on Twitter (@MediaManCurt)
