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BERLINALE 2022 Panorama

Review: No U-Turn

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- BERLINALE 2022: Nollywood director Ike Nnaebue's accomplished Berlinale Documentary Award Special Mention-winning film tells a strong story but has a confusing attitude

Review: No U-Turn

In his Berlinale Documentary Award Special Mention-winning film No U-Turn [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, Nigerian director Ike Nnaebue, an established name in Nollywood, retraces his steps of 26 years prior. In 1997, with three friends, he embarked on a journey from Lagos, through Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Mauritania, to Morocco, with the aim of reaching Europe. The film was made as part of the Generation Africa project.

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Guided by the director's voice-over, we go from bus to bus, from border to border, from city to city, and meet some remarkably interesting and engaging interviewees. Most of them are West Africans who tell stories of how they have tried, or are still trying, to get to Europe. By now, audiences will be well-acquainted with the perils of this journey, but when you hear a personal account, the impact is very different.

Many of them got stuck in one of the countries they passed through. As we saw in Ousmane Samassekou’s The Last Shelter [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, another Generation Africa project documentary, returning is out of the question: the fear of shame from failure can override even the need for personal safety. Nnaebue frames this dilemma as a search for identity, rather than a pure drive to get to a place where it's easier to live. It clearly isn't, as a woman he finds in Morocco would rather beg on the streets of Casablanca while she waits for an opportunity to cross the Mediterranean, than be a hairdresser in Nigeria.

The director's voice-over is pleasant to listen to, but the text is often overly lyrical or, worse, trite. “Music connects people. Just like food,” he says. We see him eating numerous times, asking about the dishes, or dancing with locals in an open market, buying a drum and playing it. Complemented with the view of West African cities and villages out of the bus window (something that admittedly could hardly have been avoided) and light African pop music (which could have been), it almost feels as if it was made by a European filmmaker.

Inside the bus is where some of the most interesting conversations take place. A man who just a minute earlier had a baffling argument with a young woman at the bus stop explains how he was opposing the idea of girls travelling on their own, implying suspicion of human trafficking. On another bus, a lady details how lucky she was not to get sold into prostitution or raped in Morocco. Women make up the majority of the interviewees in the film, and quite appropriately: they take a much bigger risk, including when they settle down with a man, as one abandoned mother of four testifies.

Despite some personal episodes that display his knowledge of West Africa, such as his ambiguous relationship with the city of Bamako, which 26 years ago probably saved his life and helped him become a filmmaker, Nnaebue's attitude towards his continent is puzzling. At one point in his monologue, he asks, “The continent has an abundance of resources, and we look for a better life elsewhere. What is Africa doing to keep its people?” Well, what can Africa do? It may not be officially colonised by European states any more, but it is definitely literally being looted by international corporations. It is almost hard to believe that such a question can come from an established Nigerian filmmaker.

No U-Turn is a co-production between France's Elda Productions, Nigeria's Passion8 Communications, South Africa's STEPS and ARTE France.

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