Director: Eneaji Chris Eneng
Producer: Eneaji Chris Eneng
Script: Nkechi Okere and Tunde Apalowo
Cast: Deyemi Okanlawon, Yvonne Jegede Fawole and Bolanle Ninalowo
Year: 2017
Amaka is fourteen, but in three weeks’ time, she will be dead. Her Doctor has announced her fate and her mother Ifeoma (Yvonne Jegede) who is a single mother cannot bare to see her only child die. While her daughter struggles, Ifeoma tries her best to help her daughter defeat the Doctor’s pronouncement. She cooks herbs to cure her, but this is unbearable for the child, and even the child’s father, Emeka (Deyemi Okanlawon) finds Ifeoma’s treatment extreme.
Emeka and Ifeoma do not show any difficulty in their relationship. This makes us question why they are no longer together, and even though we watch Ifeoma snare and get angry at Emeka for accepting that their daughter has little time to live, we know that there is more to their story.
We find out what we want to know when the film devises the use of flashback. We experience the complication of their story and it connects us to why things are the way they are. There is an affair, and then blackmail, these things compile to enhance the story, and through this flashback we have a better appreciation for the story, the problem is that the flashback drags and “Fire in the Rain” despite its very good narrative stretches for a little too long.
While ill health is the main focus, we also experience a conscious effort to twig at our emotions by the writers. They want to earn our tears by creating such a pitiable story; the problem is that they try too much.
Deyemi Okalawon is highly enjoyable; Yvonne Jegede is the fire of the story. When Bolanle Ninalowo arrives, the story gets more interesting.
“Fire in the Rain,” starts slow but it picks up quite quickly, and is an enjoyable story.
It earns a 7/10 from Xplore
