Citation 2020 full movie review explores the story which is an expose on the sexual assault, harassment, power play and victim shaming.
Temi Otedola plays the role of Moremi, a young PG student who almost falls in the trap of a predatory lecturer.
Luckily she speaks up for herself, the trail of victims in his wake and abuse victims all over.
The producer/director, Kunle Afolayan employs the use of flashback with a large chunk of the movie set in a university tribunal where the panellists had to decipher who was lying between Moremi (Temi Otedola) and Prof. Lucien N’Dyare (Jimmy Jean Louis).
Moremi reports that she was almost raped by Prof Lucien and while she makes her case to the Ibukun Awosika-led panel, her adversary counters every of her account with a neatly repackaged version of his, the only difference is that he is always the victim in his story.
The relationship between Lucien and Moremi was not always like this. It started as an innocent bond between Lecturer and student but little did Moremi know Lucien had ulterior motives.
This story is not new to the average viewer but we cannot get tired of pushing conversations around abuse, rape and victim shaming.
This time, however, Kunle added the complexities of an already existing bond between the victim and her abuser which is not the case with every abuse victim.
Lets s look at the different parts of the production and what I think of it.
Characterization.
Kunle Afolayan seems to have a unique formula for selecting his cast because he has a way of using eccentric actors who deliver effortlessly.
Almost the same can be said for this production because Lucien(Jimmy Jean Loius) was a brilliant selection.
However, I have reservations about Moremi’s performance. Citation is Temi Otedola’s first outing as an actress.
While she beat expectations judging from public comments before the release of the movie, she didn’t reach the depth of emotions expected of Moremi who was assaulted physically and verbally, almost raped and had to sit in the same room watching her abuser turn the story on her.
Ibukun Awosika made an appearance as the lead of the presiding panel. The question is, what is the relevance of having Ibukun Awosika playing?
Cinematography.
Chef’s kiss to Jonathan Kovel. He brilliantly captured angles that were essential in sending the message for most scenes.
The cinematography is honestly something that cannot be faulted because it heightened the experience for the viewer.
Amazing long shots especially with capturing students activities in the halls, lecture theatres and environs.
There was also the scene at the beginning where he took a swivelling aerial view of a sculpture in the middle of a department in the Obafemi Awolowo University. Magnificent!
Language.
The Netflix original employed the use of four languages. English, Yoruba, French and Wolof but more of the 2nd and 3rd were employed.
The first thing I would like to note is Moremi’s Yoruba, to put it mildly, it was subpar.
At first, I assumed that there was a reason she spoke Yoruba as that but save for the fact that she did not do her first degree in Nigeria, there was nothing else.
Could we have been saved the stress of listening to the poor girl struggle with the language? Definitely.
Could she have limited her use of Yoruba in the movie to shorter, less complicated sentences? Definitely
However, her French was smooth and it is safe to conclude the Temi speaks French better than she does Yoruba.In the end, we are thankful for subtitling.
Stunts.
This honestly could have been way better than it was. At the beginning when the OAU professor was being beaten by a female student’s boyfriend, we could see that the whips were not really hitting his body.
Another scene that made me cringe was when Moremi’s boyfriend, Koyejo (Gabriel Afolayan) was in Karate session.
There was absolutely nothing wrong with the Karate in that scene until unnecessarily animated sound effects were added. That took away so much from what would have been an effortless scene.
Costume
The costumier did amazing. Moremi is a young, intelligent Masters student with a curious and liberal mind.
These qualities reflected in her and it reflected in the way she looked both in outfits and hairstyle.
Same goes for the other casts. Lucien N’Dyare’s wig could have fooled us until is potted an overdose of hair product around his edges.
Music.
Appropriate choice of music is honestly the icing on the cake for movie production. It was the icing on the cake for Citation.
When there were in typical Senegalese environment as was seen during their class trip, the music switched to Wolof and French songs.
While in Nigeria, we had mostly English and Yoruba songs that aligned with the message of the scene.
On a whole, I will 100% recommend this movie to anyone who love good movies . It touches on salient issues and raises a lot of important conversations.
