Alahun: The Weaver, produced by Kayode Kasum and directed by Dare Olaitan, was released in Nigerian cinemas on August 21. The movie is an evocative piece that belongs to the epic genre while straddling other genres like drama, suspense, thriller, and fantasy.
A lecherous entity called the king of genies (Lateef Adedimeji) kidnaps the princess of a town named Irepewole. This town is otherwise peaceful under the rulership of their own human king (Ibrahim Chatta). This king enjoys a tight bond with his war chief, Balogun Onifade (Olarotimi Fakunle), and betrothed his daughter, the now-kidnapped Princess Olajumoke, to Onifade’s son, a basket weaver named Adeboriiku (Moshood Fattah). When the King of Genies kidnaps Princess Olajumoke, it is not because he has fallen hopelessly in love. He simply wants to add her to his state-of-the-art harem of wives and concubines, collected from kingdoms far and wide. His obsession with building this unlikely empire of women stems from years of rejection. Women have consistently turned him down, and you can see why. He has horns, a monstrous black face, rotten feet, and, generally speaking, the sort of appearance that does not inspire romantic poetry.
The plot draws from an old folktale, the kind often told as a cautionary tale to fastidious damsels picky about their choice of men. For a film that runs a little over two hours, it never feels like it is overstaying its welcome. Every minute earns its place. Told entirely in Yoruba and thoughtfully subtitled, the film holds firmly to its cultural identity without shutting out those who do not speak the language.
Beneath the folklore and fantasy, the film weaves together themes of gender expectations, parenting, greed and how love can shape the choices we make.
Through Adeboriiku’s character, the movie captures the paradigm shifts that come with changing times and seasons, and how society responds. Often, society expects men to be all brawn- strong, stoic, and seemingly impervious to vulnerability- but Adeboriiku’s character defies the stereotypical definition of the masculine ideal. His inner intensity and evolution offer a more nuanced idea: that a man can be many things and still be a man, because before he is a man, he is first a person. He evolves from hairdresser to spirit slayer.
The movie’s treatment of parenting, especially fatherhood, carries a gentle but weighty warning: parents must be careful not to provoke their children, lest they become the very people standing in the way of their flourishing. But the movie also leaves a balanced perspective. That perhaps a parent’s greatest responsibility is building character in their children and helping them discover and fulfil the purpose contained within their gifts and talents. A child is not meant to be a parent’s replica. Olaitan also discussed these family expectations in his interview with OYA Magazine. They are meant to become themselves, carrying what is good from those who went further than they ever did.
In Alahun, the acting does justice to the story. Adeboriiku (Moshood Fattah) is arguably the film’s biggest revelation. He is not the conventional image of a hero. He is slight, soft-spoken and physically unassuming. Yet somehow, he commands the screen. His greatest weapons are not muscles or menace, but his eyes and his face and Dare Olaitan knows exactly how to use them. The director repeatedly brings us into close-up, letting Fattah’s intense gaze and subtle expressions carry the weight of the scenes. Adeboriiku may not look powerful, but the camera makes sure we feel his presence.
Odepadeoro (Imotunde Adeyemi) is equally memorable, playing the film’s embodiment of the greed archetype, a character prepared to trample anyone who stands between him and his desires. He is bold, fearless and convincing in his portrayal of a man whose worldview is distinctly Machiavellian.
The cinematography, led by Emmanuel Odihiri, was excellent job. The visual effects are impressive and contribute to the film’s overall visual appeal. Unfortunately, that consistency doesn’t extend to the sound. The audio quality is patchy in places, with some dialogue trailing off to the point that the audience strains to catch what was said. For a film that relies heavily on its characters and their interactions, clearer sound would have significantly improved the viewing experience.
Dare Olaitan deserves commendation for directing Alahun. His approach seems to marry an auteur’s creative instincts with the technical discipline of a meticulous director. Nowhere is this more evident than in his treatment of sound and visual effects. He pays careful attention to the smallest technical details, using them not simply to make the film visually impressive but to shape the viewer’s emotional experience.
Though Alahun is not, strictly speaking, a horror movie, Olaitan occasionally borrows from the genre’s vocabulary to create moments of genuine unease. Through VFX and soundscaping, he sends chills down the viewer’s spine. The combat scenes in the movie are a testament to Dare’s direction, as they are the film’s visual effects.
However, Olaitan’s directorial approach occasionally struggles to distinguish itself from theatre. Some scenes are staged with the pace and composition of a stage performance rather than the fluidity expected of contemporary cinema, particularly in scenes populated by large numbers of characters. The composition of these crowd scenes recalls classics such as Saworoide, an avant-garde film of its era that borrowed significantly from theatre. The visit to the Land of Masquerades illustrates this most clearly. The collective cheering, extended crowd reactions and close-ups of characters without speaking lines give these moments a distinctly theatrical quality. On stage, such reactions can establish atmosphere and engage a live audience; on screen, however, they can feel prolonged and interrupt the narrative’s momentum.
Beyond its thematic thrust, Alahun’s plot is one of the film’s strongest pillars and perhaps one reason it rises above many others in its genre. It is a captivating story of becoming, growth and consequence, giving the audience characters through whom they can recognise pieces of their own lives. The brute gets his warning. The ridiculed is told to hang in there and become something. The inflexible is forced to see beyond the narrowness of his horizon. Even the lecherous gets checked. Everyone gets a lesson, and almost everyone gets something to take home. For that alone, the film comfortably earns a 4/5 from me. And yes, the actors deserve another well-earned slap on the back.
