Movie Review: ‘Anchor Baby’

Before watching the movie ‘Anchor Baby’, I read two reviews from Nigerian bloggers, since the movie was written, produced and directed by a Nigerian Lonzo Nzekwe. I wanted to have an informed look at how they see the movie. What I read was totally different from what I watched.

It’s like watching a football match and listening to commentators comment on the same match afterwards. Sometimes they make it sound as if the listener watched a totally different match from what they are talking about.

Quiet interesting, but that is the same way I saw those reviews -- they veered off totally. Though I won’t belittle the reviews, I thought they were too petty especially if the movie I watched was the same movie they watched.

Slavery in its entirety had been abolished several decades ago. But there is a new form of slavery which is a bit refined. People call it ‘Brain Drain’. There are many ways in which Africans in the Diaspora or illegal immigrants are exploited on daily basis under the pretext of helping them to acquire documents. The ‘Anchor Baby’ dwells on several themes; love, betrayal, dreams, desperation but highlighted just one; the exploitation of illegal immigrant.

A lot of thinking observably went into the movie! Sorry but the kind of thinking lacking in the Ghana Movie Industry is what went into the making of this movie.

Anchor Baby might not become the best ever movie produced by an African in the Diaspora but from now onwards, it will be classified as one of the best movies produced ever. If for nothing at all, the theme is what most illegal Africa immigrants will identify with. I will not sit here and force a square peg into a round hole when I know it won’t fit into the hole. The movie is a must watch.

Anchor Baby is a beautiful movie with a perfect theme. It’s a story of Nigerian couple Paul Unanga (British born Ghanaian actor Sam Sarpong) and Joyce Unanga (played by Nollywood actress Omoni Oboli) who lived in the United States of America. Three months after the expiration of their visas, they were ordered to vacate the country voluntarily or they forced to leave by deportation.

How can one stay in U.S. for two years and go back to Africa without anything? Man has to survive and go back to Africa with something to stand on or remain in America and play hide and seek with the U.S. Immigration. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with mandate from the U.S. government started tracking down illegal immigrants, arresting them and deporting them to their home countries.

Joyce had given up and was ready to leave the country as soon as possible but her husband Paul didn’t like the idea of them leaving the country when his wife was pregnant. He managed to convince Joyce who was 5 months pregnant that, they will leave to Nigeria after she has given birth in America which guarantee automatic U.S. citizenship to their son ‘Uche’, meaning God’s will’.

It is Paul’s dream that if they are to lose everything that, they have worked for in the past years by leaving the country to Nigeria, then his son has to be born in the country.

There was a swoop at Paul’s place of work. Several workers were arrested but he got the hint and ran for his life. But how far can a man bent on surviving the harsh atmosphere in America run? Paul escaped the officials of the I.C.E. but he was tracked down, arrest and deported toNigeria after losing his phone in the chase, which was used to track him.

Now pregnant Joyce has to fend for herself and the unborn baby. She has to live their American dream all alone. She can’t access health care because she has no work permit. She has no ID, all she has is her green passport; her Nigerian passport.

No insurance card means she can’t see a doctor. Five months and she still hasn’t seen a face of a doctor. She vacated their resident since I.C.E. left a note the morning her husband was arrested that, they will come back, which means she will be arrested if she stays around. But she couldn’t get any apartment without an ID.

After being turned down to see a doctor, Susan Backley (played by Terri Oliver), a freelance writer who is struggling to have a baby for her husband came into the picture to offer her a place to stay until she gives birth. God works in mysterious ways. For Joyce, Susan is a Good Samaritan sent from God to help her.

She was in a dare need that, she didn’t pause a while to ask herself, why a white woman will just approach an unknown black woman in distress and instantly help her out, counterfeit her ID and other documents for her. Quite strange.

Susan’s ID was counterfeited for Joyce so she can access health care and see a doctor. She started using the ID with the name ‘Susan Backley’. She became very ‘free’ to move around, see a doctor as well as get access to insurance with her new identity. Four months elapsed and Uche was born.

Back home in Nigeria, Paul was trying so hard to butter his bread. As an African man, he was filled with excitement when news of his wife given birth in America and consequently, acquiring American citizenship to his son was received. But then a new development pops up, a big problem.

When Joyce receives the American citizenship passport of his son, it bears the name ‘Uche Backley’ instead of ‘Uche Unanga’. What is next for Joyce Unanga? It’s up to you to find out. Anchor Baby is a movie that I will recommend to everybody. It’s a must watch for people who believe they can only survive by traveling to Europe and the Americas when in fact; they can end up losing everything they have worked for.

Acting was good but there is a room for improvement. It was shot in Brampton and Hamilton, Ontario, Canada but set in the United States.

“Anchor Baby” won the Best Film at the Harlem International Film Festival with Omoni Oboli winning the Best Actress at the same event.

It also won the Award of Merit Los Angeles Cinema Festival of Hollywood. It made the Official selection Africa Intl Film Festival and official selection Fans of Film Festival. Also, it emerged 20 at the Reelsworld Film Festival.