Quest for power, Position, blood, in ‘The CEO’

The setting of the highly anticipated movie, THE CEO, is a serene beach resort in Lagos, where a multinational company, Transwire, brings 5 top officials of the company to choose the CEO.

The show starts with the arrival of Dr Zimmaman (Angelique Kidjo), who seems to know the dirty past of each official and  then, as the subject matter unfolds, it gets tougher with  the death of the first housemate, Jomo (Peter King), while another, Eloise (Auriele Eliam), dies a day after.  The filmmaker makes use of sound, a chair dance game and explicit imagery and African content to execute these scences.

There seems to be a death spell cast on the housemates as anyone who loses during the chair dance ends up, dead the next day. Like he did with ‘October 1’, Afolayan sets the audience in awe with many unanswered questions, unlike the typical movie in which one can suggest the finishing line from the beginning!

The movie calls for deep thinking as the audience begins to place bets on who the killer is as they argue in hushed voices. Thus, with the costume, story of ambition, musical theme, dark imagery, Afolayan brings out the dark soul of an unassuming, seemingly harmless lady Lisa (Kemi Lala Akindoju), who turns out to be the antagonist and killer.

The scriptwriter, Tunde Babalola must be given kudos as he always writes stories about “things that people do not want to talk about” by thinking outside the box, as the society we live in is getting complex, a point powerfully made in the movie.

The zenith of the filmmaker’s dream is, however, to project Nollywood to the world, as each character represents various African countries and executes its roles professionally. The movie explores the quest for power, money and position and sex. It is very mind engaging and it is not for the idle mind, although it doesn’t use image tricks or special effects.

Although there is no sealing of the crime scene or family members coming to create a scene at the crime scene, as in a typical Nigerian setting, Afolayan ups the ante by putting up a sophisticated investigation through Hilda Dokubo, to unravel the mystery.

Pundits also argue that the scriptwriter tries to patch the character of Lisa to the movie only 15minutes to the end of the film, but what is there to enjoy in a movie, if all the cues are given to you at the beginning? Kudos to the filmmaker as it is not the typical play-at-home movie. Kunle Afolayan is not here to joke!