Maami (EOTWS)

End Of The Week Shorts #35 extract: Maami (2012)

Maami is a strong Nollywood picture. Whilst it bears many of the downfalls and tropes that you may expect - sketchy sound design, excessive flashbacks, questionable dialogue, clunky projections of culture (e.g witch craft), etc. - Maami capitalises on its strengths very well. In such, Tunde Kelani manages to imbue his imagery and narrative with, sometimes, incredible warmth. Whilst some images are completely lacking of verisimilitude and others exude a documentary realism, the best scenes of this movie step inside the conventions of Nollywood to find a genuine melodramatic image and confidently explore a mother-son relationship with moments of true poignancy and thematic weight. 

As a powerful example of a Nigerian picture, Maami is notable for the manner in which it constructs the melodramatic image that holds the proverbial 'Nollywood magic'.