“Unclaimed”: Unlikely Storytelling Route Ruptures Promising Psychological Thriller 

Being a successful filmmaker requires having the ability to play around unpopular ideas or review popular ones through fresh lenses. In doing so, the filmmaker has an unwritten obligation to tell the truth of a people’s culture and beliefs, more often staying faithful to the social context. It is not out of place for a film to reflect fantastical ideas rooted in age-old practices, such as C. J. Obasi’s Mami Wata which is set against the backdrop of mythicized river deities possessing humanoid, supersensible abilities. Likewise, Nnamdi Kanaga’s Water Girl highlights the concept of Ogbanje, a phenomenon often scientifically mischaracterized as sickle cell. A film that lacks realism and relatability often risks alienating its core audience, disconnecting from its setting, and provoking negative reactions. Unclaimed, a psychological thriller and Biodun Stephen’s latest directorial offering, immediately bonds with its audience through familiar troupes and themes such as crime, murder, mental health, trauma, emotional abuse, dysfunctional relationship and family dynamics.

Incorporating elements of family drama, crime thriller, and murder mystery, the film tells the story of Mary Abioye, a young woman from an affluent family who is suspected of killing her husband and hiding his body, following his sudden disappearance. The film is narrated with the occasional use of flashbacks that reveal the circumstances leading to the dysfunctional marriage of Mary and Dieko. We first meet Dieko, played by Kunle Remi, loved by all, a soft-spoken unmarried gentleman with a flourishing medical career—the perfect definition of an eligible bachelor. He was unofficially adopted and brought up by Mary’s parents (Norbert Young and Jaiye Kuti) who recognized him for his excellent character and raised him as their son. In spite of their shared background, Dieko takes a romantic interest in Mary, and they end up getting married, to the satisfaction of  her parents.

What is supposed to be a blissful journey unfolds as a marital mishap when Dieko subjects his wife to constant emotional abuse. He hurls verbal insults at her—calling her a slut for trying to seduce him and saying she stinks like a pig when she has just returned from work— to deplete her esteem and make her feel worthless. He hides her inhaler and allows her to suffer for a while before responding when she has an asthmatic attack. One day, Mary, fed up with the marriage, decides to leave, with a recorded conversation that serves as evidence to reveal the hidden, abusive  nature of her husband. Alerting him to her actions proves foolish, as Dieko, in an attempt to coerce her into surrendering the evidence, causes her to briefly lose consciousness, slits his own wrist to bloody a knife, frames her for murder, and flees with the phone.

Wife battering and physical abuse are commonly talked-about cases of domestic violence in patriarchal societies like Nigeria. Yet Unclaimed draws our attention to the often underrepresented terrain of verbal and emotional abuse using the marriage of Mary and Dieko. The film makes a case against the trivialization of emotional abuse, suggesting that it could be equally as dangerous and disastrous. The abuser’s psychotic behavior stems from childhood trauma and identity crisis. Even so, the film does not justify his actions towards Mary. One also discovers that the narcissistic, ungrateful young man is driven by his deep-seated fear of the unknown and envy for his wife’s privileges. We realize this, for instance, in the scene where Mary discovers a disturbing secret diary of her husband in which he has recorded that he would be the only child of the Abioyes some day.

In spite of what feels like a promising premise, Unclaimed often presents us with questionable scenarios throughout. First, the chances of foster parents allowing their adopted child to marry their biological child are minimal, especially in a typical Yoruba home where strict family values and boundaries exist and children brought up under the same roof are considered more or less siblings. Even if the parents would agree to them getting married, they should not have easily given their consent. Also, Dieko’s plot to take over the Abioyes’ legacy comes off as amateurish and poorly orchestrated, with the young man showing up too soon after and revealing himself to an acquaintance besides his wife, ignorant that news of his disappearance has gone viral. Delaying his re-appearance while police investigation intensifies would have added to the thrills and suspense of the film. It is also quite disheartening that Mary’s parents, particularly her mother, doubt her innocence, despite her having no history of violence or criminal record. Though the possibility of such unfounded distrust is not unfathomable, it detracts from the plausibility of the narrative.

Written by Gift Collins-Amadi and produced by Feyifunmi Oginni, Unclaimed is a story with potential that is not fully tapped, thanks to hurried plot and character development. The pacing of the narrative is fast, as the mystery surrounding Dieko’s disappearance unravels early without allowing the audience to be fully immersed at first. Dieko confesses to Mary that he is responsible for the termination of all of her romantic relationships, but the film does not show how he achieved this. Then, a revelation of Dieko’s formative years through flashbacks, particularly the period before he was adopted by the Abioyes, would have corroborated his psychologically complex character and appealed better to the audience. Should one overlook its narrative shortcomings, the film can be momentarily enjoyed for its entertainment value.

Unclaimed is currently showing in Nigerian cinemas.