By Abu Daley
There are films that entertain. And there are films that instruct. But every once in a while, a film emerges that embodies both : arresting the heart with drama while compelling the mind with vision.
This highly anticipated feature produced by Nollywood iconic actor and producer Monalisa Chinda and directed by the versatile actor and director Desmond Elliot is one such film. It is, without doubt, a stirring cinematic journey into the soul of agriculture, resilience, and family legacy.
At its core, Farm Boy is simply more than a story of Emmanuel Katung, his son Jude Katung, and a farm on the fringe . It is a metaphor of Nigeria itself, the symbolic tale of a nation, its land, its struggles, its untapped wealth, and indeed its hopes. The movie opens with the quiet dignity of rural toil, Emmanuel wrestling with poor harvests and debt, but holding unyielding faith in his brilliant son. Then it pivots to Jude, a corporate high-flyer trapped in the cold steel of ambition, detached from the rustic roots of his father’s calling. His quest to attain the zenith of his corporate career, to be an authentic elite of the technocracy, was unwavering despite a soul pricking betrayal.
But his father’s death will pull him back into the soil he once abandoned, forcing him to decide whether to sell out or sow anew?
Desmond Elliot’s directorial hand is nothing short of masterful. His camera lingers on the soil, the sweat, the stillness of sunsets over vast fields, turning farmland into poetry. The cinematography captures the pulse of agrarian life with such authenticity that one can almost smell the earth and feel the dust underfoot. Lighting shifts seamlessly from the corporate fluorescent haze of Jude’s city life to the golden, forgiving glow of rural landscapes, creating an unspoken tension between two worlds The sound design is crisp, intimate, and never intrusive, letting silence carry as much weight as words.
The performances soar with quiet brilliance. The cast , as they say in Nigeria, killed their roles. They did not just act. They lived the role. They were impeccably true to life.
Their dialogue feels lived in, stripped of artifice, echoing the true-to-life struggles of Nigerian families caught between modern aspiration and ancestral duty. Jude’s torment is palpable, his fiancée’s resistance and declaration that ” I won’t be a farm wife ” is hauntingly familiar, and Zara Suleman’s predatory ambition leaps off the screen with chilling believability.
Monalisa had a small private viewing in Abuja with friends. One of the delighted friends, Chigozie Ibeh , a Development Consultant, went overboard. Hear her,
“This is Nollywood at its most responsible and most artistic. Farm Boy is a wake-up call to our nation. This is a story of resilience and inventiveness. And that is our story as Nigerians. We must believe in the promises of our nation. One failed dream can’t be the end of life. That’s the story of Jude. Even if one leader fails us, we must look with hopes at the next leader and the possibilities ahead, ” she concluded , her voice simmering with fervent spirit and absolute joy about the movie she just watched.
Tunde Joseph Adeyinka, a media critic, was excited by the technical depth of the movie.
“The cinematography is breathtaking ; I was spellbound by how farmland was turned into visual poetry. The editing was almost flawless, and the music scoring truly amplified the moods,”said the media critic. ” And I guess I was truly thrilled by the thematic essence of the movie which is basically farming, you know, agriculture and agribusiness,” he added.
“The acting is raw, pure, and painfully real. I saw myself in Jude’s struggles,” noted Samuel Adeyemi, an entrepreneur.
“It is rare to see a Nigerian film that balances art, advocacy, and entertainment so beautifully. Farm Boy achieves this effortlessly,” enthused producer, Ikem Williams, who came in from the US.
“This is the kind of film that will inspire young people to see farming not as punishment, but as promise,” added film blogger Tunde Osho.
No question, Farm Boy is not just a movie. It is a movement. A cinematic harvest, sowing seeds of vision, duty, and resilience in the Nigerian imagination.
As an incisive creative work, Farm Boy is a stirring call to the soil, a reminder that the true wealth of a nation does not lie beneath its oil wells but within its farmlands. It dares a new generation to return to the earth, not as peasants of the past, but as innovators of the future, tilling hope where despair once grew.
This is simply a Nigerian call. A song for the soul of our nation. A movie that reawakens the pride of labour and redefines farming as not just survival, but destiny; the green gold that can once again feed our dreams and our nation.
*Abu Daley wrote in from Abuja
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