The Scope: CITATION

Show Discipline Black Films

Hey y’all and welcome back to my segment “The Scope”. This month I decided to do something slightly different and review a Nollywood film. That’s right! - Straight from the motherland. For those who may not know, Nollywood refers to the Nigerian film industry. Nollywood films deserve a lot more recognition, because, for one: their storylines are on point. 

So with that being said, during a Netflix and Chill session, we looked up “International Movies” on Netflix, and decided to watch and review the Nollywood film called Citation. Citation was Written by Tunde Babalola, directed by Kunle Afolayan, and stars the beautiful Temi Odetola, and handsome Jimmy Jean-Louis.

So, from the trailer of the movie, I immediately expected this to be your average college professor plots on student type of films. Citation is a film about an attractive Professor; Professor Lucien who plots on a young college student named Moremi- who ends up taking him to court for attempted rape. 

Professor Lucien began plotting on Moremi after being intrigued by her beauty and her smarts. With that being said, he finds a way to get close to her, and with Moremi being young and naive she has no problem getting close to him because to her it was completely innocent, just a professor and a student who share the same passion being friends, right?  No! And everyone around her would warn her to be careful.

If I’m being completely honest, I was extremely confused for at least 45 minutes of the film, because of how the storyline was set up.  This movie was full of flashbacks, and flashbacks within flashbacks, however they don’t really do a great job of signifying what the flashbacks are versus what was present day. I figured it may have been on purpose. The movie literally starts off as a flashback, and you don’t even realize it. However, because it was set up so confusingly, we were forced to pay closer attention to what was going on, and eventually we were able to piece together the story and what was a flashback vs flashbacks within flashbacks vs present day.

 I was honestly upset during the 1st half of Citation because I was like, “Wow so they really made a movie that was out of order.” But, at the end of the day, we’ve all watched these storylines over and over. Essentially, I really appreciated the way it was written, because had it been “in order”, it would have just been another average predictable movie. Citation was one of those movies that keep you engaged in a way where you’re too busy asking your friend if they’re following along, because you’re confused as hell (lol). But, I don’t necessarily mean that in a bad way. When a movie forces you to engage in those conversations during the film, then they’re doing something right. Especially when it all starts to make sense. When we finally put the story together, you naturally end up enjoying the film a lot. Don’t get me wrong, even when I was confused I was still enjoying the movie. Mainly because the acting was on point, and the scenes were shot very well. I admired the gradient of the film. And I also admired Moremi (Played by Temi Odetola). She was absolutely stunning and I was in awe of her beauty the entire film. 

I don’t want to give away any spoilers, so I definitely encourage you all to watch the film. Nollywood films deserve more love. I give it a 7.5 out of 10.