For the past months, a movie poster for a Nollywood movie titled “BlackBerry Babes” has been making the rounds on social networking sites and Nollywood fan sites all around the web. The initial fascination was based on the assumption that “Nigerians have become so addicted to BlackBerry devices that we just had to make a movie about it”. However, as clips of the movie began to emerge online, the questions got a little bit deeper.
The story follows a very common theme that we have seen in a thousand and one Nollywood movies – wayward young women trying to live above their means. In this case, the focus is BlackBerry smartphones. It seems as though having a “BB” has become a “standard” that Nigerians expect people not fall below. Case in point, several young ladies and gents have mentioned that rather than asking for your number, intending suitors ask for their BB Pin and if they don’t have one, they get a blank look and then “see you around”. A young entrepreneur with a budding business also noted that prospective clients ask for his BB pin and since he doesn’t have one, he has lost significant business because of that. Anyway, back to the movie.
The official movie synopsis:
Blackberry Babes is a Nollywood comedy about a group of girls played by Oge Okoye, Tonto Dikeh, Annie Macaulay that live and die for smartphone technology by way of their Blackberry smart phones and will only date guys that they think can buy them one. These girls are obsessed with their Blackberry phones to the extent that some of them own more than one model and are desperate for a new one as soon as another model is released. Even while they are in university lectures they BBM each other. Going on a shopping date involves taking pictures on the phone of items to buy and Blackberry Messaging the pictures to the other girls for approval. Keisha played by Mary Remmy and Apolonia played bny Eniola Badmus are trying to get into the popular crowd of Blackberry owning girls but exist solely on the margins because they don’t own one. To what extent will they go to get a Blackberry smart phone and will they ever be accepted?
People had a lot of unnecessary hate for the movie. The first thing that I would like to say is that PEOPLE THIS IS A COMEDY. If it made you laugh then the job was done. No it wasn’t the cleverest comedy in the world and yes it had the stupidest title but point blank it was funny. Not as funny as I thought that it would be after watching the clips but funny enough that I would recommend watching it. Greed and materialism has been a central theme in many many Nollywood movies for a while now, so why the surprise that the filmmakers would take this angle when Blackberry phones are a craze in Nigeria right now? To me the movie highlights the absurdity in those that engage in this sort of materialistic, greedy and snobbish behaviour. Think about it. These girls look down on anyone that doesn’t have a blackberry yet they didn’t work for the money that got them their own so who are they to judge anyone?
The question is, what does this say about our movie industry and most importantly, what does it say about our society? Leave your comment!
Watch the first part of the movie:
Naija people are greedy!
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