Nigeria’s ‘Òlòturé’ is hard to watch

HUMAN trafficking comes to hard-to-watch life in ‘Òlòturé’ (2019), a Nollywood crime drama exploring the ruthless underbelly of sex work in Lagos. 

Directed by Kenneth Gyang and starring Sharon Ooja as the titular character, the film zooms in on a world of pimps, madams, pickup bars and the big men who do what they please.

Attempting to expose this grim reality is Ooja’s Òlòturé, an ambitious but frustratingly reckless young journalist who infiltrates a brothel in the hopes of witnessing the mechanisms of the local sex trade funneling women to politicians and eventually using them as domestic or sex slaves in return for a ticket to Europe.

The film is inspired by the real story of Tobore Mit Ovuorie who went undercover to do the same and witnessed a web of violence, voodoo, organ trafficking and murder before publishing her experience in the Premium Times. 

Much of this is reflected in the film, which is unflinching in its reflection of a trade that sees thousands of Nigerian women trafficked to west, central and North Africa, the Middle East as well as European nations such as Italy and Russia.

Produced by EbonyLife Films and a departure from Nollywood’s stereotypical fare and conventions, ‘Òlòturé’ is a sleek and relatively focused crime drama with few instances of levity.

The fact that Nigerian women seek sex work as an antidote to economic hardship and to support their families back home is underscored while the disparity between rich, criminal politicians in their sprawling mansions and the underworld that satisfies their sexual appetites is stark.

Rather underwritten as the lead with no real motivation beyond getting the story, the character of Òlòturé is bolstered through her interactions with Omowumi Dada’s excellent Linda, a sex worker trying to save enough money to get her sister and herself to Europe. 

The film also stars Omoni Oboli, Ada Ameh, Beverly Osu, Blossom Chukwujekwu and Ikechukwu Onunaku as an ensemble of madames, sex workers, pimps and an editor.

Though you may find yourself literally yelling at the screen in response to Òlòturé’s more questionable decisions, ultimately her brave naivete is endearing. Òlòturé means ‘endurance’, and while the story unfolds, the protagonist needs plenty of it as she falls into the quick, sand of this world with good intentions but catastrophic underestimation.

Stream this for an educational and sobering story ultimately unconcerned with happy endings. 

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