With the calamitous fall of Harvey Weinstein and his ilk in 2017, and the springing up of the #MeToo movement and Time’s Up, we are currently living in a critical moment of culture. More than anything, I think it’s a wonderful time to live in, even for Nigeria’s entertainment industry as we now feel emboldened to filter what we consume. It won’t be out of place to say we are woke. There have been a number of sexual assault stories that have been published by women on social media since the Weinstein scandal, and award season has had celebrities like media mogul Oprah Winfrey retelling their story of rape.
And the conversation around sexual misconduct and harassment is still on-going, trickling into our movies and music (Falz’s Child of the World is pure cringe, I’m sorry). Which is why Udoka Oyeka’s latest short film Las Gid Vice feels culturally caustic, resonant, and hard to ignore. Most importantly, the film’s female characters collectively offer a study into processing trauma and finding cathartic closure from rape. In a world where victims of sexual assault are still being asked what they were wearing and why they decided to be around the rapist alone, Las Gidi Vice wrecks punishment on the establishment that protects rapists.
The film follows the night of a playboy, who meets a mysterious girl he’s immediately drawn to. As the night goes in, his past sexual transgressions catches up with him as a group of women galvanise against him and a plot revenge. Las Gidi Vice was produced by Trino Studios and is an official selection at the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2018 and screened at the British Film Institute 2018 amongst others. Starring Theresa Eden, Hauwa Allahbura, Bucci Franklin and Tunji Ogunyeke, you can watch the short film below.
When Bernard Dayo isn’t writing about pop culture, he’s watching horror movies and reading comics and trying to pretend his addiction to Netflix isn’t a serious condition.
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