Total War (2007) Online

I saw this movie on a transatlantic flight and found it really interesting. It made me even more curious about Nigerian movies. The film is shot in English, and the story line is easy to follow, even for audiences not familiar with West African countries. Since Nigerian movies are presently not shown legally in Britain itself, this was a unique opportunity for an introduction into the world of Nollywood.

Virgin Atlantic Entertainment Guide gave this plot summary: 'Pastor Henry, a Liberian who came to Nigeria as a refugee, falls in love with another Liberian lawyer who resides in Nigeria, days to their wedding, his past comes back to haunt him.'

The main plot centers around the social lives of Church going folk at a popular local parish, mainly the pastors and female church workers. Pastor Henry, a popular and beloved Liberian refugee with his share of enemies is preparing for his Church sponsored wedding to Sister Sharon. Sister Sharon(played by Uche Jombo), who is a lawyer by profession is happy about her upcoming wedding and continues to help battered and abused women by providing them with legal advise in an outreach group.

Ten days to Sister Sharon's wedding, her sister Sandra(played by Omotola Jalade Ekehinde) returns home from America to attend the festivities but all hell breaks loose when upon seeing whom her sister is about to marry, Sandra has an anxiety attack and faints. When she awakes, she explains to her sister that pastor Henry is the terrorist who raped her and killed their parents while they were on a missionary visit to Liberia. Everybody is shocked by the news and sister Sharon is now faced with the moral debate on whether to follow her heart, forgive and forget the past in order to go ahead and marry her one true love.

This film caused a huge argument in my household on the day we all sat down as a family to watch it. And when you watch it, you will see why it caused such a ruckus. It's quite sad when a moral debate crosses paths with a religious one. Half of my family members were on the religious side of the debate and I(with the rest of the obstinate bunch of us)on the moral side of the debate. May God forgive me, but I don't have it in my heart to love a terrorist, even if I fell in love with him before knowing his true nature. That love will be forced to go away once I find out that his dumb ass has raped and murdered women and children amongst other things.

That said, this was a solid Tri-Nation(Nigeria, Liberia & Ghana) drama. It has its ups and down but overall the acting was good, the dialogue on par and story was solid. I rate it a B-