The Nigerian-German hip hop/soul singer Nneka has made her acting debut in the film “Relentless” (2010). The film is about love and self-discovery in urban Lagos. The film also stars Hatian actor Jimmy Jean Louis (Phat Grilz) and Gideon Okeke.(Tinsel)
BFI called the film of director Andy Amadi Okoroafor a visually accomplished film debut that laconically narrates a story about love and self-discovery, set in one of Africa’s unforgiving capital cities.
Synopsis: Relentless is a story about love and self-discovery, set in Sierra Leone, one of Africa’s unforgiving countries.
Obi, an orphan brought up by the military, becomes a peace-keeping soldier in worn torn Sierra Leone. He meets Blessing a Sierra Leonean woman and falls in love for the first time. His world and life are devastated when he finds Blessing mutilated by kid soldiers and rebels. His only option is to kill her misery.
On his return to Lagos after the war, he is an emotional autiste, sleepless and lonely. By day he runs a small security company with Ola his best friend and fellow war veteran, at night he walks the lonely streets of Lagos haunted by his past.
In one of his midnight walks, Honey, a runaway university student and high-class call girl falls into his arms, thrown down from a bridge to die by one of her clients. Obi is thrust back into reality as he once again is carrying a woman in his arms, another victim of violence, another life to save or let die.
But Honey is alive and enters Obi’s world, opening up his mind again to feelings and emotions, but also ultimately leading him into committing another murder.
It’s election time in Nigeria and a powerful politician claiming to be a friend to Obi’s late father hands Obi’s firm a lucrative contract to provide security for his candidate.
Obi and Honey, both in personal exile and struggling to get a hold on their lives are thrust into action as a course of events draws them together in the relentless and brooding city that is Lagos today.
As Obi comes to terms with his life and reality, he embarks on a journey of redemption and self re-discovery. We unveil an intimate portrait of a man battling with the scars of war.
The film explores the vast canvas that is Lagos today ‚ powerful, dangerous, alive and uncompromising; fraught with deceptions and corruption yet thriving with hope, strength and resilience.
RELENTLESS from Lluís Prieto on Vimeo.
The film is not afraid to subtly question Nigeria’s peace keeping troops in Sierra Leone, the tragic history of Biafra, the silent plague of human sacrifice, mass government inefficiency and corruption. This is also a film that celebrates Nigeria and Lagos as an African city bustling with the energy, music, vibrant, full of culture and humanity. –
About the film the director writes: “I see Relentless as a story told through innovative contemporary images. It is not a voyeuristic eye, it is participative and engaged, it is an insider perspective and the form of the images is a vital element of the film. I want the film to look under the surface, to look at Africa with a new intensity.”
