Parents' Guide to Anikulapo

The cinematography, setting, and performances in this drama are confident and scripted well. But Anikulapo is still too long and has some problems in translating its fable-like messages of the dangers of greed and power. Specifically, there's too much of the first act, too little of the second, and too abrupt a transition to the third and final passage that confirms Saro's path. It also isn't entirely clear that this is set in an abstract mystical past and not modern Nigeria. Some uninitiated might simply assume that this film is about present-day Nigeria.

While other aspects of culture might not readily translate without help, a lot of the folk culture presented here is decidedly antiquated in terms of the role of women, their "place" in their communities, and the "duties" as "queens" or as mothers. What this means is that the relevant female characters are trapped within the confines of these structures and therefore don't have room to go anywhere in the story. Also, the story isn't about their struggle. Arolake's eventual unhappiness only serves as Saro's eventual comeuppance; thus, she's relegated to a woman scorned, rather than revealed to be the protagonist all along.