The establishing shot of Collision Course is a synopsis of the infamy that led to the EndSARS protest. Layers of events led to the now infamous protest; extortion, the disappearance of brothers and sisters, and homicide against Nigerian youth.
Details of the ongoing protest filter around in videos, through WhatsApp status, and eyewitness accounts; the frenzy shooting, of 20th October 2020. Those relevant dreams, aspirations, and lives of patriotic youth still rage on – Nigerians are still dying. Within splitting screen time, the first scene unearthed the trauma of the EndSARS protest.
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![Is Collision Course an imaginary biopic of the victims of police brutality? [Image Credit: VOA]](https://gdb.voanews.com/4D9D428C-8DE3-4080-8BFA-15B65F937A54_w1200_r1.png)
Documentation of history with films is important. ‘Silverton Siege’, ‘Jewel and Kalushi: The Story of Solomon Mahlangu’ are recent delightful examples of films produced in South Africa that charts the country’s historical events and people. With the ostracizing of history in secondary school syllabi, the need to recollect defining events in Nigeria was discouraged. There comes Bolanle Austen- Peter’s Collision Course.
It’s poised as a film that milks a national scar. Mide Johnson (Daniel Etim Effiong), the spotlighted victim of police brutality, was taken to ‘the abattoir’ by members of TARZ where ‘conscience is for sale’. Either as prologue or epilogue, films with historical content have a disclaimer. ‘It’s coincidental’, the signature words of the disclaimer help draw the line between fiction and non-fiction. However, in this film, TARZ has an apparent intonation of SARS. The signature question, ‘are you a Yahoo Boy?’, the carefree killing of youths makes the film dovetails between fiction and non-fiction, undecidedly.
![The film dovetails between fiction and non-fiction. [Image Credit: BBC]](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/14978/production/_114944348_endsarshi063751597.jpg)
Magnus’s (Kelechi Udegbe) frustration was fuelled by strings of events. The uproar of Ekaette (Chioma Akpotha), self-doubt caused by incessant loyalty to the country without a reward and murmur of unpaid or underpaid salary moulds a monster in this man. It’s an endless directory of crises. Reducing the burden, Magnus made a roadblock, and ‘anything for the boys’ follows.
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![Magnus and Mide in a still from Collision Course [Image Credit: Guardian NG]](https://i0.wp.com/businessday.ng/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/BAP-Production.png?fit=700%2C400&ssl=1)
Mide, still keeping in check his trauma, met Magnus at the checkpoint. The series of event to follow made the car scene from ‘Two Distant Strangers’, ‘The Travon Free’ and Martin Desmond Roe’s directed Oscar award-winning short film, comes to mind.
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It seems that juggling a quartet of responsibilities in the film, D.O.P, Producer, scriptwriter, and songwriter, made James Atunwa lose sight of the insight Mide spoke about – “the system is the enemy”. While that declaration could have moved to a logical destination, it detours into a liberal conclusion. “The individual is at fault, not the system” — Magnus’s eventual arrest reduced the potency of Mide’s insight. So, which system is at fault? It’s the capitalist system.
Collision Course is streaming now on Netflix.
Written by: James Atunwa
Directed by: Bolanle Austen-Peters
Director of Photography: James Atunwa
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Lead Cast: Daniel Etim Effiong, Oluwabamike Olawunmi-Adenibuyan, Ade Laoye, Chioma Akpotha