First thoughts
I enjoyed that it is a different take on the “husband travels abroad” storyline.
The Cast and Crew
Ayo Adesanya as Mama Efosa
Etinosa Idemudia as Izzi
Emeka Darlington as Efosa/Richie
Anastasia Malandrenia as Katie
Bobby Ekpe as Uyi
Aluko Gold as Chika
Uchenna Okafor as Emeka Texas
Sunday Ochowechi as Security
Written by Etinosa Idemudia
Produced by Etinosa Idemudia
Directed by Mo Fakorede
Full Story
GREENER PASTURES is the story of Izzi. Barely 2 days after she married Efosa, he leaves for the United States.
7 years, she waited for him. For 7 years she has been faithful to him and after 7 years, their lives have changed. They now live in a beautiful home built from the money Efosa has been sending.
In that home, Izzi lives with her mother-in-law, Mama Efosa and her brother-in-law, Uyi. Mama Efosa is very particular about Efosa getting his papers and she holds vigils to pray about it.
Uyi, on the other hand, is Efosa’s broke and jobless older brother. He graduated top of his class in Uni but he is yet to get a job. He is 35 years old and his mother makes his life a living hell.
Uyi has a fondness for Izzi. He is very protective of her and even beats up men who try to come on to her. One of those men being Efosa’s friend from abroad, Emeka Texas, who refused to give Izzi the phone Efosa sent to her just so that he could keep having access to her.
Emeka lives with a girl, his “sister” Chika. Chika is a hustler who is down for whatever as long as you have the money to foot her bills. Well, not all the time sha, because she likes Uyi and is kind of obsessed with him because he is handsome and has a big…
So after 7 years, Efosa returns from America and with him he brings home a wife – his oyinbo wife – Katie.
With Katie around, Izzie was then reassigned to a new role – sister. She is Efosa’s younger sister and also, Efosa no longer wants to be called Efosa. He is now, Richie. I guess both his name and nether regions were colonized.
Katie at first is irked by the way Efosa and Izzi act around each other but as time goes on, she begins to like Izzi and tries to be her friend. Izzi doesn’t reciprocate though. Izzi only tolerates her.
While all this is going on, Izzi and Uyi begin to spend more time together and form a solid friendship.
Mama Efosa decides to have an impromptu birthday celebration 5 months earlier than her actual birthday. At the party, A LOT goes down.
First, Izzi comes to the party looking like a solid 10 and Uyi compliments her. They even dance and she tells him to hold her waist to make Efosa jealous. He gets jealous but walks out to go smoke outside.
Next, Mama Efosa embarrasses Uyi for standing up when she says, “I will like to call on my son”. Once he stood, she was like “not you, my other son. Why are you standing like you paid for this party. This is how you end up embarrassing yourself”
After that, Uyi sits outside sad and Izzi comes outside to join him. She tries to give him hope that someday he will be successful but he responds “life is not like a Nollywood movie” and then they kiss.
Finally, Katie clocks Efosa’s game and knows that Izzi is not his sister but she doesn’t care. She only gives an ultimatum. She is leaving for the US the next day and if he still wants their marriage to work, he will leave with her.
The next day they leave. Izzi asks Efosa to free her but he doesn’t. He promises to come back for her. Mama Efosa is so saddened, that she pours her frustration on Uyi calling him a failure and a jealous brother who wants Izzi for himself.
Later on, Uyi confesses his feelings to Izzi, they kiss again but she slaps him and says that she is a married woman.
She tries contacting Efosa but he refuses to pick up neither her calls nor Mama Efosa’s calls. That night, Izzi tosses and turns in bed and resigns to tell Uyi how she feels the next morning.
The next morning comes, she goes to Uyi, wearing a nice skimpy outfit – ready to tell him how she feels and that knucklehead says “I am going to go surprise my girlfriend on her birthday”
The girlfriend oh… Uyi goes to surprise his girlfriend, Chika and let me tell you that she was doing them THINGS to her “brother”, Emeka.
After she is done with her
“brother”,
she goes to meet Uyi and she drags him for FILTH. She calls him broke, useless and that he THOUGHT, Emeka was her brother. Emeka isn’t.
Uyi goes back home crying to God. Begging for a miracle.
A year later, Uyi gets a job in Ghana but as he is about to tell Izzi about it, Mama Efosa bursts in, celebrating the birth of her first grandchild. Katie gave birth to a baby boy.
Izzi is shattered. Her world is over. Her husband is gone and 8 years of her life, was wasted on a pipe dream. Uyi tells her the good news and asks that she come with him to Ghana but Izzi still in a state of denial says “I am a married woman. He promised me he would come back for him. I will wait for him.”
She goes to bed, and the whole day replays in her head. The next morning, Uyi packs his bags and leaves for Ghana. Before he leaves, Mama Efosa starts rescinding all the nasty things she said to him calling him her favourite son.
Izzi wakes up, ready to claim her man but when she gets to his room, it is empty. She runs downstairs and asks Mama Efosa who tells her that Uyi just left.
Izzi steals a bike and chases after the cab Uyi is in. He sees her through the taxi’s rearview mirror. The car stops, he comes down, and she tells him, “I will go with you.”
They kiss and they leave. Without her packing her bags.
Rating out of 10
I give it 👩🏿❤️💋👨🏿👩🏿❤️💋👨🏿👩🏿❤️💋👨🏿👩🏿❤️💋👨🏿👩🏿❤️💋👨🏿
My score is largely because of how it handled a very overused Nollywood storyline/trope by bringing something new to the table. Most times, the big climax or goal is for the foreign wife to catch her husband and the Nigerian wife in a compromising situation. After she does, she dumps him and he is deported.
In this movie, however, she never does. She has a hunch but instead, chooses to leave and take the man with her. The story isn’t about the abroad husband and the Nigerian wife. The story is about two unappreciated people finding each other. It is about Izzi and Uyi being the perfect match but never realising it until everything and everyone else had failed them.
Not bad.
Myopic Concaves 
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