By Naomi Salami
Movie Title: The Trade
Release Date: 13, January 2023
Runtime: 2 hours 8 mins.
Director: Jadesola Osiberu
Producer: Jadesola Osiberu
Background
The Trade is a thrilling action movie with brilliant story-telling and suspense. Acclaimed to be based on real-life events, it gives the audience an insight into the life of a notorious kidnapper who terrorised certain parts of Nigeria and evaded the law for a long time with the help of corrupt authorities and cunning tactics. Anyone familiar with Jade Osiberu’s films will be able to quickly identify similarities between them. The film performed well to pay special attention to detail and represent certain indigenous languages of Nigeria.
The Plot
The scene opens up by showing a band of kidnappers in the act. Unfortunately for them, the kidnapped individual, Eric played by Blossom Chukwujekwu turned out to be a criminal as well and had a strong relationship with their boss. It was a bit shocking that he was able to spot the trademark of who kidnapped him almost immediately, which made us understand how smart he was. The movie progresses and we discover that Eric is in the business of kidnapping high-net-worth individuals. He carefully mapped out his strategies before he kidnaps his victim and he keeps them blindfolded till their relatives pay the requested ransom. He made sure he kept a low profile and didn’t have any digital presence, including pictures with his family.
During a meeting with his accountant who suggested kidnapping a very prominent customer of their bank played by Rita Dominic, who was the CEO of one of the biggest transport companies in the country. The plan succeeds and Eric asks her husband for his usual ransom of $1 million, unfortunately, one of his gang members betrays him by cutting a deal with the kidnapped lady and helping her escape. Her escape leads to a thorough investigation led by a special team in the police force and he is eventually caught.
Credit: FilmOne on YouTube
The Casts
The cast delivered well on their performances. In the case of Blossom Chukwujekwu, he was able to embody his character and never broke out of tune even once. If this was the first time you saw him in a movie, you would probably think that the way he spoke in The Trade was his normal way of speaking. His attempt at portraying a menacing look was also commendable.
Shawn Faqua, as always, was spot on. His appearance on the big screen always makes people wonder what his next act will be. If you have seen the movie Soólè, Before Valentine and his other projects, you would notice that you can never predict his next character and he always delivers effortlessly.
Drawbacks
We all understand that perfection is impossible, but we nonetheless work hard every day to get closer to it. This adage is demonstrated in our Nollywood productions. Although many aspects of filmmaking appear to have advanced, there are still some areas that need improvement. The kidnapper in the movie was portrayed as villainously clever and it was assumed that the road to catching him would be a tough one. But all it took to catch him was a discovery of one clue and everything unravelled after that. More suspense elements should have been added to make the story more exciting.
Opinion
Despite its minor flaw, The Trade is a thrilling blockbuster that gives its audience something to think about after viewing it. A lot of questions would probably be raised by a few fans about the clarity of the story but as always that seems to be the trademark of its director.
The Trade is currently one of the nominees in 4 categories at the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards and it is currently streaming on Prime Video.
Naomi Salami is a Content Manager with Meiza Nigeria.
