By Hugh Onah
For a whole lot of movie lovers in Nigeria and beyond, one item on their ‘Must Watch’ list ever since its release date was published was the long anticipated smash hit from EbonyLife and Netflix, Blood Sisters. The awesome body of work from one of the biggest production houses in Africa in collaboration with the biggest online streaming platform across the world was released on the 5th of May, 2022.
The limited series which was created by Temidayo Makanjuola and directed by Biyi Bandele & Kenneth Gyang, saw a beautiful mix of the old and new school of Nollywood actors to create this masterpiece that became a viral sensation (no surprise there). Holding their own and killing every scene among the likes of Kate Henshaw, Ramsey Nouah, Uche Jumbo, Bassey Ekpeyong, Wale Ojo and Kehinde Bankole were new school Ini Dima-Okojie, Nancy Isime, Deyemi Okanlawon, Daniel Etim Effiong, Ibrahim Suleiman and Gabriel Afolayan.
The story follows Sarah (Ini Dima-Okojie) and Kemi (Nancy Isime), two best friends whose lives takes a turn for the worse when an engagement party ends up in a murder. It is a thriller fuelled with secrets, violence, survival, power play, greed, love, hate, and unending twists and turns that would take your breath away. Little wonder why, just a few hours after its release, movie lovers took to social media to applaud the project with several hashtags and short videos of their favourite scene or characters trending on Twitter.
As good as the movie is (mehn, it was goooooooooooooooood!), and as much as I want to applaud how far we have come as storytellers, and praise EbonyLife for redeeming themselves with the Nigerian audience after the epic fail with Chief Daddy 2. However, Blood Sisters still fell short in some areas in creating that near perfect cinematic experience. So, here is my honest review of the series:
Story
For a thriller, Blood Sisters stayed on theme from the first scene to the end and boy was I glad, confused and terrified for the entire ride. Although the story has one too many holes in it if you think about it critically (I would advise that you do not, yes run from rational thinking just this once), you would see that it brought to light a lot of ugly truths about our society. It also highlighted love, patriotism, friendship, mental health, and a whole lot of awesome lessons to learn from.
Cast
As a whole, this was the near perfect cast (that was my issue) but there was always something a little off about it that took me out of the story. For example, Uche Jumbo being cast as Ini’s mother left me with some questions. Uche murdered the role no doubt but knowing that there is just an 11-year age difference between them begs a lot of questions which would have been avoided if a more seasoned actor was cast for the role. Also, casting popular faces for one time screen time with little or no lines was a bit of a miss for me.
Role Interpretation & Lines
Blood Sisters is an intense story so the actors understood that they had to pack as much emotions behind their character to sell it. Bravo to Ini, Nancy, Deyemi, Kehinde, Gabriel, Wale and our breakout star, Genoveva Umeh for a job well done. Others were either too intense or not strong enough to have us believe their character’s point of view. Shout out to the epic savage lines from Kate Henshaw’s character (chef’s kiss to you).
Cinematography
Let’s give it up to the camera and video crew because they did what needed to be done to give us excellent shot after shot of pure genius. The angles, the location, the lighting, transitions, choice of soundtrack, and movements of every scene was beautifully shot and selected that I just couldn’t fault any of it. Hats off to you!
Fashion
Dear lawd! From the trailer and promotional materials released, we expected nothing less in the fashion department. Everybody was dressed to the tee as it was expected of their character at every step of the journey. It was an eyegasm and I was longing for more. (Side note, Aunty Kate, no matriarch in Nigeria dresses like that at home all the time though, just saying.)
Final thoughts
Overall, Blood Sisters is absolutely worth the hype and buzz it came it. Beautiful story (different from anything you’ve ever seen), awesome acting, lines you won’t forget in a hurry, fashion to die for and a need to re-evaluate your relationships with family and friends.
I would rate the series, 8/10.
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