Anikulapo (2022) Review: Resurrection Has a Price

Is Anikulapo worth watching?

Yes. Anikulapo is a richly made, genuinely distinctive fantasy that brings Yoruba myth to the screen with real ambition, and it is one of the most visually confident Nigerian films of recent years. Kunle Afolayan builds a lived-in precolonial world and tells a morality tale about desire and power with the sweep of a folk epic. The reservations are its length and pacing: at 142 minutes, the story sags in its middle stretch, and its modest effects work sometimes lags behind its imagination.

What is Anikulapo about?

Saro (Kunle Remi) is a young cloth weaver with big ambitions and little money who travels to the royal city of Oyo to make his fortune. His talent and charm open doors quickly, and he catches the eye of Arolake (Bimbo Ademoye), one of the queens of the ruling Alaafin (Hakeem Kae-Kazim). That dangerous attraction sets off a chain of events that leads Saro to the akala, a mythical bird with the power to bring the dead back to life, and to the wealth, envy and trouble that come with it.

Anikulapo is directed by Afolayan and set in the Oyo Empire of centuries past. It is a Nigerian production, performed largely in Yoruba, and runs 142 minutes. It won the Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Film in an African Language and became one of Netflix’s most-watched Nigerian titles after its release there.

A precolonial world built with care

The film’s most immediate pleasure is its world. Afolayan and his designers fill the screen with woven fabrics, beadwork, palace courtyards, market stalls and village compounds, and the result feels grounded rather than theatrical. The costumes are especially striking, full of the textiles that give Saro his trade, and the film takes obvious pride in presenting Yoruba culture, language and ceremony with dignity and detail.

Afolayan, whose earlier The Figurine helped define a more polished, genre-literate strand of Nigerian filmmaking, gives Anikulapo a patient, storyteller’s rhythm. Songs and chants drift through the soundtrack, elders speak in proverbs, and the narrative unfolds like a tale told by the fire, with its lessons about pride and appetite built in.

Kunle Remi and a cast of rising stakes

Kunle Remi is well cast as Saro, a man whose charisma is also his flaw. He plays the character’s early hunger and charm convincingly and lets the arrogance creep in as fortune arrives, which gives the fable its moral backbone. Bimbo Ademoye brings intelligence and ambition to Arolake, a woman who wants more than the confined life the palace offers her, and the chemistry between the two drives the first half.

Hakeem Kae-Kazim gives the Alaafin a weary, dangerous authority. The supporting ensemble is large, and some characters are more colourful than developed, but the performances generally fit the heightened, folkloric register.

Where the epic loses its footing

The second half is where the film struggles. Once its central supernatural idea takes hold, the story becomes episodic, repeating variations of the same situation before it builds toward its climax. A tighter edit could have shed twenty minutes without losing anything important. The digital effects, including the akala itself, are serviceable rather than magical, and a few set pieces feel constrained by budget. None of this undercuts the film’s ambition, but it keeps a very good fantasy from becoming a great one.

Who should watch Anikulapo?

It is ideal for viewers interested in African folklore, fans of mythic fantasy that is not built on European templates, and anyone curious about the more ambitious end of contemporary Nollywood. It includes sensuality, some violence and supernatural themes, and suits older teenagers and adults. Settle in for a long evening; it rewards patience more than a distracted viewing.

If it appeals, try:

• The Figurine, Afolayan’s earlier supernatural thriller about a cursed object and the price of good fortune.
• Living in Bondage: Breaking Free, a modern Nollywood tale of ambition, occult bargains and their consequences.

The verdict

Anikulapo is a proud, handsome Yoruba fantasy that uses myth to tell a timeless story about the hunger for more than life offers. It is too long and its effects are limited, but its world-building, culture and ambition make it a landmark of Nigerian genre cinema.

Rating: 4/5