Movie: For Maria Ebun Pataki
Length: 1 hour 16 minutes
Director: Damilola Orimogunje
Year: 2020
Viewing platform: Netflix
For Maria Ebun Pataki takes on a fairly untouched topic in Nollywood, post partum depression. It follows the story of Derin (Meg Otanwa), a 33-year-old new mother who struggles to rediscover herself after a difficult birth experience.
It’s easiest to look at this movie in two halves, the first being the parts with Tina Mba and the second being the parts without. The first half of the movie is striking and immersive while the second half is stretched out pain – for the characters and the viewers. The film strikes you mostly because of the writing. The performances are stellar in this film but the writing is a blinding light. The writers make the story connect with the audience by creating a world full of characters that are real and tangible. Starting from Tina Mba as the grandmother to Gabriel Afolayan as Fola (the husband), we are met with individuals we can relate to who are intrinsically good but are handicapped by the situation.
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It is immersive because you feel the pain of every character and not from the simplistic lens of good guy versus bad guy because the writers eliminate that right from the start. You initially see Fola doing the best that he can to support his wife while being completely confused by the situation. You see the grandmother trying to stand-in as a mother for her daughter-in-law by serving her food and praying for her, while also having been a mother herself and not understanding Derin’s behaviour. You see Derin herself mentally willing herself to do and to be but being unable to climb past that wall. This is best seen in the scene where she first picks up Maria and attempts to breastfeed. The first half is a classic example of what happens when individuals hear a language they never knew existed.
Unfortunately, the second half is not as poignant as the first. It tells real truths and in its dragging it shows the stretched out torture of women suffering from post-partum depression. However, it doesn’t hit with the same intensity until the end of the movie. Intentionally or unintentionally, in the second half the audience has to live through the frustration of watching a helpless situation. It causes more empathy for Fola’s character as we get to experience his frustrations with him. Another thing it captures here, intentionally or unintentionally, is the exasperation caused by seeing that the problem has been identified and mentioned many times (as PPD) but no one ever goes ahead to do anything about it. Granted, this is probably a mirror of real life situations. However, it makes for an exasperating watch.
Meg Otanwa as Derin in “For Maria” is in prime form here. A major reason the first half stands out so brightly is the way she speaks so loudly without ever using words. In the first few scenes she makes you feel like you know Derin quite intimately, but then when you step back you realize the character has barely said three words in the whole film. Tina Mba is perfect as the grandmother who is supportive, yet dated in her ways, and still trying to “stop nonsense from happening” (so to speak). Then there’s Gabriel Afolayan who continues to be a class act. His best scene is possibly in the second to last scene of the movie where he is speaking to AY (Demi Banwo) at the bar. You can tell he is at the end of his rope as he looks up at his friend as though he is in need of a good cry but has to hold it in because “na man him be”.
Altogether, For Maria is a good film with a loud moral lesson. It looses steam as it goes but the performances keep it afloat even in those moments. It is a movie with a message and like all movies in this genre it struggles to hold the majority of the audience throughout, but at least you can agree that it never loses the plot.
Cast: Meg Otanwa, Gabriel Afolayan, Tina Mba, Demi Banwo, Judith Audu, Tubi Aiyedehin, Dayo Akinboro