Omotoke Solarin-Sodara’s “You Are the Problem” Weaves A Tale of Guilt

The opening quote of Omotoke Solarin-Sodara’s You Are the Problem, “A shared dream is a common prison, built from our own transgressions,” immediately sets the psychological tension driving this 12-minute thriller. This epigraph foreshadows the film’s revelations, suggesting how collective guilt can harden into self-imposed captivity.

Preye and Favour, portrayed by Janet Ajanma and Fadesaye Olateru-Olagbegi (Baby Farm), are estranged friends trapped in an endless cycle of guilt and recrimination. The “shared dream” becomes a metaphor for their deceased friend and the liminal space where grief has imprisoned them. Their transgressions manifest as the weight of perceived failures, each blaming the other for not saving their friend Sochi when it mattered most.

The two engage in a futile exchange of accusations, their circular arguments yielding nothing but deeper resentment. This psychological stalemate persists until a falling picture frame shatters their defensive posturing, forcing them to confront the true reason for their entrapment. The film concludes with reconciliation between the former friends and their implied escape from this dreamscape, whether back to reality or simply out of their shared delusion, remains deliberately ambiguous.

Solarin-Sodara explains that, “the visual language of the film aims to immerse the audience in this dreamlike, yet increasingly claustrophobic, environment. The dimming and flickering lights serve as a physical manifestation of their emotional state, highlighting the instability of their reality as uncomfortable truths surface. Every detail, from the meticulously crafted cardboard plates and cutlery to the specific camera shots—close-ups that trap them—was designed to heighten the tension and reflect their internal struggle.” This attention to form grounds the film’s metaphor, making its purgatorial atmosphere feel tactile.

At its core, the film explores the unique weight that friendship imposes on us. The unspoken expectation that we should be our loved ones’ keepers, their emotional lifelines in moments of crisis. Solarin-Sodara understands that friendship exists in a gray area between intimacy and responsibility, where the boundaries of what we owe each other remain unclear. When tragedy strikes, this ambiguity transforms into a ground for guilt, as the friends torture themselves with hypotheticals: the phone call not made, the warning sign ignored, the moment of need unrecognized. The film suggests that sometimes our closest relationships become the very mechanisms through which we punish ourselves most cruelly.

Produced by Solarin-Sodara’s Block 57 Films, You Are the Problem ambitiously weaves together themes of friendship and moral culpability. As the writer, director, and producer of her debut film, Solarin-Sodara had big shoes to fill. The film probes the uncomfortable territory of self-examination, forcing viewers to confront their own capacity for complicity. It targets that restless part of human consciousness that craves—yet fears—genuine introspection.

While Janet Ajanma and Fadesaye Olateru-Olagbegi commit to their roles, their performances lack the emotional intensity required for such a psychologically demanding piece. The muted delivery undermines the profound grief that supposedly traps these characters in their dreamlike purgatory. The weight of loss that should permeate every frame feels diluted, leaving the audience questioning not the characters’ motivations, but the authenticity of their pain.

Despite these shortcomings, Solarin-Sodara succeeds in exposing the delicate nature of friendship, how easily trust fractures, and how guilt can poison even the deepest bonds. Drawing from her own experiences, she crafts a meditation on the ways we fail each other and ourselves.