Review: Climbing higher but going under
Growth – financial, social or emotional – comes at a steep and personal cost.
Wilfred Okiche
Folarin (Ozzy Agu) looks like he has a great life. He is young, handsome and married to a beautiful woman from a wealthy family. And he is the public-facing manager of an ambitious government project to deliver kilometres of light rail.
But Folarin is also spiralling. His marriage is cracking under the pressures of growing their family. The rail project is stalling: over budget and mired in political scandal. His boss expects him to fix it even if it means making some dodgy calls. Everyone is looking to Folarin, but there is only so much this man can take.
The idea of a functional light rail system in Lagos has been kicking around for at least 40 years. Its failure to fully materialise despite successive attempts has created a ghostly presence of cement and rod that haunts the city’s skyline.
Over the Bridge, directed by Tolu Ajayi and written by Tosin Otudeko, uses the light rail project as a backdrop for an elemental story about mental health and the cost of development, especially to indigenous communities who become collateral damage. To sell his project to the local population, Folarin offers them shiny promises of uplift that he has no means or intention of seeing through. When the pressure becomes overwhelming, he snaps and finds himself the newest member of a remote fishing village. Can he find his way back? Should he?
There are ways such a setup can go wrong, leading to a film that has underprivileged characters doing emotional and physical labour for a member of the oppressive class. Over the Bridge wisely sidesteps this, evoking some earned sympathy for a fellow who has been blinded by privilege for so long.
Ajayi’s cross-cutting of scenes with the Lagos skyline is thoughtful and deliberate, and the actors put in solid work. These efforts are often undermined by a weak screenplay that could have used some more rounds of edits, but the result is promising, nonetheless.
Watch the trailer for Over the Bridge.