CLASSIC REEL : The Oath

Cast: Liz Benson, Sola Fosudo, Obot Etuk, Keppy Ekpeyong Bassey Inyang,  Zainab Bukky Ajayi, Ronnie Dikko, Joe Layode  and Jennifer Okere Ossai


Year of release: 1998


Directed by: Andy Amenechi


Plot: A couple face harrowing consequences of a rash action they carried out years ago.

The main characters were played by Liz Benson and Sola Fosudo- their third pairing since Glamour Girls in 1994 and True Confession in 1995. The cast also included late veterans Zainab Bukky Ajayi and Joe Layode,  Family Circle alum  Ronnie Dikko, Checkmate alum  Obiageli Molube and an appearance by the late Larry Koldsweat.

Love is a beautiful thing, but this film shows what could happen when one takes it to the extremes.
Before we get to the main focus, we find Steve (Fosudo) is married to  Gloria (Okere), who is bullied by her mother-in-law (Ajayi) and sister-in-law (Dikko), while Stella (Benson) is married to Harry (Inyang) and unhappy in her marriage. The reason why Stella and Gloria were being treated badly is due to the age-long stigma in African/Nigerian society, childlessness. And both women's husbands are less than supportive, Steve takes to drink and deep self-pity, while Harry takes up with another woman- Susan- (Obot Etuk) and wastes no time telling his wife that Susan was carrying his long-awaited child. And yet, after she is advised to accept the fact from Harry's uncle, Harry surprisingly consoles her- insisting he still loved her. You openly cheat on her and still say that???

Susan and her mother (Molebe)  do all they can to kick  Stella out of the house- first by constantly picking fights with her and then accusing her of being a witch after the baby boy suddenly dies. Ironically, the child died because of Susan- who was not what she appeared to be; getting her comeuppance later on. Meanwhile, a fed-up and very angry Gloria voluntarily leaves Steve, but not before she tells her mother-in-law and bitchy sister-in-law Beatrice exactly what she thought of them, which they really deserved- plus the fact that it was Steven who was infertile and not her.

Stella turns to her uncle ( Layode) for comfort and counsel and it is then the viewers are treated to a lengthy flashback, where we see that  Steve and Stella were once in a loving relationship. Out of sentiment, they performed a blood oath ( a very stupid idea) to seal their love further.

 But alas, things later went sour for them as Steven later became increasingly abusive towards Stella after he gets into financial difficulties. The relationship finally ends when Stella broke up with him and moved out and much later on, they both find new partners- Harry and Gloria- but ended up very unhappy in their marriages.

Well, that explained everything, it was the blood oath all along- which turned out to be more spiritually binding than they thought; hence their unhappy marriages to other people. The only option is to of course break the spell. But there is a hiccup- a key item has been lost, hence it means one of them has to die for the oath to be broken.

 While the issue of Steve and Stella unable to have children with their spouses was because of the blood oath they took, The Oath  also tackled  the issue of Nigerian wives hounded by their in-laws when a child is late in coming, blaming the wife but never (or refusing to consider) that the husband may the one who has fertility issues. The line from Harry's uncle: 'Why will we not hold you responsible' was really infuriating. And Gloria's announcement that she was not the infertile party was met with immediate disbelief and denial by Beatrice and Steve's mother.


 There is also the problem with marriages torn apart via third-party interference (overbearing in-laws) instead of putting their own houses in order, almost like they resent the men in the family marrying at all and want to keep them all to themselves.  Gloria's sister-in-law Beatrice was especially bitchy towards her; constantly looking for reasons to yell at Gloria and it seemed strange she spent a lot of time at her brother's house when she had a family of her own. And if men tried to stand up to the interfering family, they immediately jump to the conclusion that he is bewitched. When they go to a dibia about the issue with  Steve, they were told Steve was in love with a woman who had a huge influence over him and the reason why he is not a father; the blame immediately falls on Gloria. Steve's mother blamed her for Steven 'not taking care of her' and not paying Beatrice's children's school fees... imagine that! But much later on, Stella's visit made them realise Gloria was innocent the whole time, but by then, she had walked out on Steve.

The Oath had a good plot and a steady continuity. Sola Fosudo and Liz Benson, as well as the rest of the cast- especially Obot Etuk- gave a great performance, Fosudo was emotional in some scenes. Yet

in the flashback scene with Steve and Stella, a younger actor and actress should have been cast. Liz Benson is a beautiful woman- still is- but seeing her portraying a young girl in her 20s was weird; it takes more than just dressing young for that.

There was an indication there was going to be a sequel because this was shown at the final scene:

Which was entirely unnecessary because there was nothing else to tell.  The dibia said one of them had to die for the oath to be broken. Steve refused to let Stella sacrifice her life and Stella refused to let Steve die for her either. The longing look on their faces as they stared at each other and the tight hug they shared told viewers the obvious; they were still in love.  Their marriages over, what was stopping them from getting back together and staying together this time?

 Case CLOSED... and a sequel ended up not surfacing after all and a good thing too.




Trivia:

Jennifer Okere Ossai featured in Liz Benson's and Sola Fosudo's previous films, Glamour Girls and True Confession.

The Oath was  Jennifer Okere Ossai's final film, as she sadly passed away from kidney failure the following year.