Oloture is a story about a journalist who goes undercover to unlock a big human trafficking ring right in the city of Lagos, Nigeria. It is a story borne out of the real-life experience of an investigative journalist, Tobore Ovuorie. It brings to light the experiences of young girls and sex workers, and how they're lured into a life they didn't expect.
Stories like this can be triggering whether you have an inkling of what human trafficking entails or not. It is important that these stories are told as it enlightens so many people. Like I'd always say, that's my favourite thing about older Nigerian movies.
Oloture is more recent, released in late 2019, and it does a great job of telling this story. It stars Sharon Ooja who embodies the role of Oloture the undercover journalist.
There are a number of movies that have told the sex trafficking story of Nigerian girls before but I like how Oloture brings a different take to this story. The undercover journalist part of it is new and very well done.
The movie shows the circumstances that make young girls want to go to Europe through dubious means. Oloture discovers all of these in her mission and the empathy this character displays is award-winning.
Another amazing character was Linda, played by Omowumi Dada. Linda was uneducated and had been into prostitution for a while. She was promised a better life in Europe by a lady called Alero for a fee. What she didn't know was that she was basically signing herself up for sex slavery.
A couple of sad and triggering things happen along the way to Europe, and they weren't even out of Lagos yet. Infact, there's no happy ending to this story and what makes it sad is, that is the reality of it all.
Alero, played by Omoni Oboli was also really good in this. I haven't seen her this way before and she bodied the madam role really well.
It was nice to see the Nigerian-ness not taken out of the characters. Some characters probably over-did it with the way they talked but I guess they were trying to get the foreign audience to understand them better.
I did enjoy watching Oloture because it was straight to the point and not a lot of unnecessary scenes. The only scene I thought was unnecessary was the one where Oloture's boss, Emeka, beat up the politician who assaulted Oloture. Justice wasn't served like he promised so that didn't lead anywhere.
Also, Oloture could have applied more sense in her actions. It got to a point when she needed backup and she should have asked for it but she was moved by her emotions. It was annoying to see all that drama.
Several times I have seen on Twitter stories of missing girls and how they were promised a good life in Italy or Dubai. All the bad people in the world can't all be stopped but I hope the movie Oloture is another eye-opener to many young girls out there not to fall prey to them.
I'd rate Oloture 7/10. Have you seen it? What do you think?
Thanks for reading!
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