Perhaps consuming (most of) Funke Akindele’s movies—and a larger share of Nollywood productions — is light work when one is in need of movies that offer a linear, overly humorous experience, leaving nothing beyond a surface-level emotional response. Perhaps it is—and it appears so —simply the case that the interest of a large part of the Nigerian audience revolves around movies of this calibre. Perhaps the knowledge of the latter is well within the grasp of the director, Funke Akindele, and the trends of her oeuvre, the reports of critics tell us so; she may well be the most adept at embracing this tendency, pushing it as far as it can go, unabashedly. Perhaps this explains her latest film, Behind the Scenes, its plot, its evident shortcomings, and, of course, its laudable success.
Behind the Scenes is a melodramatic movie that probes into a well-known social and familial dynamic that exists in many homes and friendship circles, where the cream of the crop (simply, the most successful of a group) is, more than just obligated, forced to bear the financial needs and wants of the many others. In relation to that, Funke Akindele and her co-director, Tunde Olaoye, explore how forces such as betrayal, greed, ostentation, envy, and corruption, alongside trust, loyalty, and friendship, interplay within this dynamic. In Behind the Scenes, Aderonke Faniran (Scarlet Gomez) is the cream of the crop. She is a successful real estate magnate, mother, and widow, who is pressured into shepherding the needs and demands of almost everyone—family, servants, friends, and even foes (as they are later revealed) — till she literally spreads herself too thin. The back of the camel (literally and figuratively) breaks when she is diagnosed with ‘lupus,’ a chronic autoimmune disease which sees the immune system turn upon the body of its host, till it wears the body down. The foreboding of her imminent death and the uncertainty of what will happen in the aftermath of her death force her to concoct a ‘gambit’ to give her a picture of what realities lie in wait for her children and her estate in the eventuality of her own death, and to expose the deceptions masquerading within her closest social and familial relationships.
As is expected, the crux of the story is very relatable to the audience of the form, particularly in Nigeria and across Africa, where the throes of poverty are unabating and jarring. Many families and friends who are trapped or, at times, greedy and selfish, as the film explains, are constantly hoping or prayerfully urging divine providence to send in a “destiny helper” who will ‘bankroll’ them out of their misery. Like Aderonke Faniran, those who occupy this messianic role in their familial or social relationship are familiar with the pressure that comes with it. At one turn, there is a sister in the mold of Adetutu Fernandez (Funke Akindele), constantly dogging for financial support to attend parties, live—and surprisingly ostentatiously—and sponsor her own kids’ education; at another turn, there is an ‘on-the-dole’ brother like Adewale (Tobi Bakare) waiting upon you to support set up a business for him, even though it is the second, or third, or fourth. And if you maintain a retinue of friends, one of them is Mariam (Uche Montana), for whom, from time to time, you finance her flamboyance; and financing her does not secure you from her raging envy, which soon takes more sinister forms, as the movie unravels. Of course, even after all these commitments, like Aderonke, you have your own personal commitments: children, domestic staff, work, and other necessities. The list runs over. It is this relativity that makes the audience appreciate Behind the Scenes so dearly.
When one thinks of a Funke Akindele movie, one thinks of a melodrama strengthened by a lot of mass culture signposts, familiar social cues, theatrical exaggeration and contemporary slang, all of which deepen the work’s sense of immediacy and relatability. But this style is nothing unique and is rather very predictable. When one thinks of a Funke Akindele movie, one can be sure to anticipate a boisterous character, oftentimes in Funke Akindele herself; one can also expect domestic workers who are presented as uneducated, unable to communicate properly in English; one can also expect overflogged exaggeration here and there to evoke laughter from the audience, and many times one can expect the enactment to be oftentimes very spurious and unconvincing. You find all these in Behind the Scenes. Every here and there, you get the impression that the actors are conscious that it is all unreal, and by effect, you easily see through the spectacle.
Although some may claim that in Behind the Scenes, we see Funke Akindele take on a rather different form from the onscreen Funke Akindele we are much familiar with. But upon closer inspection, her performance still draws heavily from the hallmarks of her usual screen persona. She is frequently restless, emotionally expansive, and melodramatically humorous. But hey, these cards have always been commercially viable, and she knows that. The characters are largely stock and flat. They are one-dimensional and predictable in their interventions throughout the movie. Although a distinction can be drawn for Adewale, who appears to evolve after his sister’s ‘death’.
The plot is, at best, simple and unambitious, though it makes rather weak attempts at ingenuity. At worst, it is lazy. A straightforward plot, the movie tells us how Adetutu’s open-handed spirit is taken advantage of by her siblings and friends for various ill motives; she begins to doubt their intentions towards her, and, after the revelation of her medical condition, she fashions a ruse which entails faking her own death and installing CCTV surveillances around her house to expose what lurks behind the motives of those around her. Behind the Scenes tries to reach for something higher with the ‘death’ of Aderonke, but fails to utilize the strength of the ruse as an effective suspense to keep the audience on the edge of their seat for a sufficient degree of time. The ruse is revealed to the audience almost too untimely. Moreso, the weakness of the plot is felt when we look at the supposed scandal set up against Aderonke.
The scene involving the discovery of dead bodies on Aderonke’s estate, and the demand of the ‘supposed aggrieved’ in return for their silence, is quite unbelievable and poorly executed. How effectively can such a scandal be kept from the public and from the intervention of law enforcement agencies after that macabre discovery had erupted into a spectacle and attracted the attention of nearly the entire community, including the bereaved? While it appeared to be a very worrisome issue at first—or attempted to make it so—it becomes curiously flattened, and we are given no further information about it until we learn that the whole scandal was a ploy set up by Mariam, Aderonke’s friend, to syphon money from Aderonke. A more realistic scenario will not only involve a public relations battle, but a legal one as well. On other hand, deceiving Aderonke into paying the aggrieved that large amount of money came as easy as a pie. If that scene is anything to go by, we should conclude that Aderonke is not merely generous without caution; she is laughably obtuse.
If one were to be critical of the movie, it becomes a rather tough watch. In quite a few instances, the film glosses over little details and attempts to compensate with an over-polished visual style. Notwithstanding these weak points, Akindele understands the terrain of her market and knows that these weak points matter less, if they matter at all, to the audience, who are here to simply have a good time. As it stands, Funke Akindele gives her ever-growing audience just what they want. Behind the Scenes was released on December 12, 2025. Following its release, it attained incredible milestones at the box office. By Boxing Day (December 26), it had already set a new industry record for the highest single-day gross with #129.5 million, going on to amass over 1.1 billion in 19 days by December 31, and by January 12, 2026. For her, it may appear there’s one defining rule: ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’
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