starring Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch
directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood
Nawi (Thuso Mbedu) is sent to work in the palace after she refuses to marry the much older man her father wants her to marry. She joins the Agojie, an army of women that protect the people of the Dahomey kingdom of Africa. Nawi is mentored by Izogie (Lashana Lynch). King Ghezo (John Boyega) rules Dahomey. The Agojie are a sisterhood who, in addition to being warriors, have sworn never to get married or have children. They are led by Nanisca (Viola Davis) who doesn't take kindly to Nawi's insolent attitude.
Dahomey is threatened by Oyo, another kingdom whose warriors are led by Oba, who years before was one of many men who raped Nanisca when she was captured in battle. Nanisca escaped but she was pregnant by then. Nanisca is still haunted by memories of what she experienced at the hands of Oba.
Oba does business with white men from Brazil who are there to buy Africans who they can take back to Brazil to sell. Oba and his people gather support from other kingdoms and make plans to destroy the Dahomey. Nanisca comes up with a plan to drive off the would-be invaders.
Sheila Atim played the part of Amenza, Nanisca's advisor. She was also in Bruised (2020).
I didn't pick up on the fact that John Boyega was in this movie until I was looking at the credits. He is best known to me for playing Finn in three Star Wars movies.
Gina Prince-Bythewood also directed Love and Basketball (2000), which I watched late last year.
The accents and the names gave me a little bit of trouble. It took me most of the movie to get straight the names of many of the characters.
There is a little too much going on in this movie. Most of the story doesn't get enough room to breathe. Some of the story could easily have been jettisoned without affecting the rest of the story.
I like but do not love this movie. The fight scenes are beautifully shot. The story is okay but things do seem to flow very quickly. Some things seem to happen a little too conveniently. I don't need a movie like this to be totally realistic but a slimmed down plot and a little more realism would have improved my opinion of it.
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