Áfàméfùnà Is Totally Worth The Watch But Don’t Let Those Cute Edits Fool You
To say Áfàméfùnà: An Nwa-Boi Story is Nollywood movie gold would be an understatement…
- written by Joy Onu
- 4 min read
- 02 Apr, 2024
NetflixFrom the very first scene, you’ll be hooked on a feeling that is truly Nigerian and nostalgic of the Igbo Culture. This film only goes to show how far Nollywood has come in terms of storytelling, cinematography and the art of weaving together a good narrative.
Áfàméfùnà: The Nwa Boi Story, is one of brotherhood, culture, apprenticeship, love, betrayal, blackmail, death, and all the nitty gritty in between. It is the first feature length film that delves deep into Igbo apprenticeship and its deeply rooted history, and boy are we glad we watched it.
The story premiered on Netflix on Friday 29 March, 2024. It tells the story of Áfàméfùnà, a young boy who landed in Lagos to learn the building material business from Odogwu played by the revered Kanayo O Kanayo. Soon enough he rises up the ranks till he gets settled, a rite of passage done throughout the community which allows successful Igbo men to give their blessing to their most deserving apprentices, thus continuing the cycle of wealth.
His unrequited love goes on for ages as she has her eyes set on Paul and his notorious sweet mouth. This film does an excellent job of diving deep into the history and intricacies of Igbo people and their passion for business. If you grew up in Nigeria, or anywhere in the world for that matter where Igbos are, you can’t deny that their love for business shines through and through, but to have an actual narrative depiction of it on screen takes it to a whole other level, and gives you much needed insight you wouldn’t have found on your own.
From the casting of the younger characters to the older characters, everything was stellar. Don’t even get me started on the narration and Stan Nze’s performance as Áfàméfùnà, and his innate ability to narrate the entire story from his first day in Lagos, all the way to Paul’s death.
The story will have you hooked from beginning till the end, but before we watched it ourselves. Edits of Áfàméfùnà and Amaka made their way to our timeline, and swoon we did. The love story looked juicy from the TikTok edits but boy were we not ready for what the reality of their love really was.
Don’t get us wrong, their love story was worth the watch and had quite the foundation, it just wasn’t the cutest. Not only was Amaka in love with Paul for almost the entire duration of the movie, but it turns out she also had his child. It’s a whole mess, and we have to give props to Áfàméfùnà for loving that child regardless and loving his wife despite it all in an all enduring love kind of way, but it’s just not the cute, lovey-dovey love story we expected.
You’ll surely fall in love with the Igbo culture while watching this, this story is a true testament to the history of Nigerian culture across the board, and to top it all off, it sure as hell is very entertaining too.