By Kikachi Memeh
A medical emergency causes a realtor (Temi Fosudo) and his sick daughter (Darasimi Nadi) to take refuge in the home of a military officer (William Benson). The resulting clashes and revelations of the chance meeting provide intrigue to Taiwo Egunjobi’s Green Fever, one of Prime Video’s newest Nollywood releases.
It’s a novel story buffed up by notable performances from Benson and promising child actor Nadi. Although it’s tagged as a crime drama, the film successfully passes for a thriller instead. It does well to ramp up the stakes at each act and employs appropriate, anxiety-inducing music to keep the audience on their toes.
What makes Green Fever stand out is the ease with which the story progresses logically. In the first ten minutes, it presents a social contract that convincingly assures a rewarding end in exchange for an investment of 75 minutes of the audience’s time. As audience investors who’ve been starved of worthy investments in Nollywood, it’s a promising deal that seems water-tight… till it isn’t.
The film ends with a common setup: two characters, two guns, and one gunshot. In some instances, this would be a perfect set-up for a sequel that will answer the question: Who survived? However, this isn’t one such instance. Green Fever’s story progression falters in the very last act and fails to tie up the loose ends before its final frame, thus voiding the suspense of the cliff-hanger and leaving a string of irrelevant, unresolved plot points that botch the entire 60-minute build-up. Lurking as the end credits roll by are questions like, Who was Ireti? Will Matilda take Ireti as the child she’s longed for? And most importantly, Who was Kunmi?
The ending doesn’t fare well as a set-up for a sequel because the unresolved plot points are inconsequential to thread into a worthy sequel. The audience can live without getting answers to the questions we’re left with, but it would have been more advantageous to answer them before cutting to black.
If Egunjobi decides to make a sequel based on this, it will feed into another industry-wide issue Nollywood faces unnecessary sequels. The Ghost and the Tout Too (2021) The Kujus Again (2023), Merry Men 2 (2019), The Set Up 2 (2022), and Chief Daddy 2: Going For Broke (2022) are examples of unnecessary sequels based on unsustainable story foundations.
Despite the deliberately ambiguous ending, I find this creative decision to be more harmful than beneficial for the film. It slightly trumps the film’s effort to be a strong contender for one of the best original stories in the industry and Egunjobi’s best work yet.
I’ve watched a lot of ambitious Nigerian films struggle with many aspects of storytelling; pacing and story development are the most common. The pacing of Adire (2023) is too slow, On the Edge (2023) is too choppy, and Merry Men (all three parts) is a misdirected mix of story and characters. Shoddy endings aren’t too surprising in films that struggle to get their story right and tight. The latest slew of films from streaming platforms are also riddled with pacing issues, making accessible Nigerian films even more difficult to watch.
For an Egunjobi film, Green Fever is an outlier. Although his previous films All Na Vibes (2021) and In Ibadan (2021) have a similar make-up to Green Fever: a mix of talented, not-so-popular actors, a sleepy Ibadan for its setting, and a self-conscious visual language, their struggle with pacing and story development was heavy-laden. As a filmmaker, Egunjobi seems interested in tinkering with storytelling forms, rather than employing simply commercially viable ones. He swaps out popular actors for meticulous talents and cheap narrative gimmicks for well-intentioned storytelling.
As an independent film propped up by its difference from commercial films, the expectations for Green Fever are higher but not binding. I generally tend to be more forgiving towards independent films. I’m sensitive to fish out the filmmaker’s intentions behind each frame, each dialogue, and each creative decision before making conclusions about films. I allow the film to speak to the filmmaker’s understanding of storytelling. In Green Fever’s case, I’m uncertain if the filmmaker was wary of the film’s length. It is exactly 85 minutes, with the climax and ‘supposed’ resolution jammed into the final 25 minutes. With films these days averaging 125 minutes, an extra 20 minutes to clarify a few details wouldn’t have hurt.
However ingenious or promising a film is, a poor ending eclipses a great beginning and middle. My anticipation to reminisce fondly over the things I loved and to ponder what may lie next, was ultimately doused by the film’s unfulfilling ending. Instead, Green Fever left me disappointed in what alternative ending could have been more befitting.
Green Fever is a brilliant film that has all the right ingredients to be worth every second of its audience’s time, but an ill-executed climax is a lasting error that turns any sound investment into a colossal loss.
Kikachi Memeh is a Nigerian writer, journalist, and multimedia producer. Her work centers around Black and African arts & culture and also explores African diasporic relationships and similar themes.