Relentlessly, we will fight.
Nine times out of ten when a white actor visits Africa, learns a “cool” historical detail, and returns to Hollywood pitching it as the “next big thing” logline, disaster strikes if a finished product even gets produced. Maria Bello is therefore the lone exception considering she did exactly that here. A 2015 trip to Benin—former site of the Dahomey kingdom—brought with it an education on the West African region’s famed all-women warrior regiment known as the Agojie. It went around town, got passed over or lowballed on budget, and eventually (apparently with the help of an unsolicited pitch to Viola Davis while presenting an award) got the greenlight five years later. Dana Stevens wrote the script, Gina Prince-Bythewood agreed to direct, and The Woman King was born.
We can surely thank Black Panther too considering the Dora Milaje is an obvious homage, but this time the women take center stage both as a driving force to protect their people from enemies domestic (the Oyo) or abroad (the slave trade upon which the Dahomey willingly profit) and a salvation for young girls from their fathers and husbands’ misogynistic abuses. The reason is simple: Nanisca (Davis) earns and demands respect. She’s a beloved general and feared opponent who has the young king’s (John Boyega‘s Ghezo) ear thanks to leading the coup that took the throne from his corrupt brother. Will he stop selling prisoners to Europeans (his brother sold Dahomey) simply because she asks? No. But he’ll listen and maybe, eventually, choose to agree as a result.
That’s just the backdrop, though, since the slave trade’s more pressing influence right now is its emboldening of the Oyo and their general Oba Ade (Jimmy Odukoya) to try taking the Dahomey off the map once and for all. And, on a personal level, Nanisca hopes to take Oba’s head regardless of what happens to either kingdom. Before this war can commence, however, the Agojie need reinforcements by way of volunteers to forsake marriage and motherhood to be trained as fierce soldiers. One such young woman is Nawi (Thuso Mbedu)—a headstrong daughter who has pushed too many potential suitors onto their butts for daring to strike her that her father has given up and brought her to the king’s door. She might be just who Nanisca needs.
Not that Nanisca doesn’t already have trusted badasses at her side courtesy of Amenza (Sheila Atim) and Izogie (Lashana Lynch). Nawi simply brings a new layer with smarts and ego to match the general. There’s also an unforeseen personal stake that, like many of the plot threads, is extremely familiar, but Prince-Bythewood and Stevens have a way of making such clichés work by allowing the characters’ emotions sparked by narrative to rise above where narrative ultimately takes them. It doesn’t therefore matter that we know where things are going and how they will inevitably unfold since the performances demand our attention in ways that feel as though they are wholly new. We understand these characters. We relate to the internal conflict between living for the group and themselves.
This is the theme that shines through the most. Does Ghezo choose his trusted commander to sit by his side as an equal to better fortify the kingdom or does he pick one of his wives (Jayme Lawson‘s Shante) to satisfy himself? What about Malik (Jordan Bolger), the son of a Dahomey slave and a white father who grew up in Brazil amongst slavers like his friend Santo (Hero Fiennes Tiffin)? Does he choose prosperity by looking the other way or heritage by protecting his people at his own peril? And then there’s Nawi perpetually going against orders to save her sisters in the Agojie. Is that selflessness commendable? Or, as Nanisca states, a liability? It’s all a matter of perspective and a willingness to ignore one’s pride.
It’s motivation and foreshadowing as Nanisca finds herself facing a similar choice that she never believed she’d have to considering how loyal she has been to her post. Both rage and love hold the power to sway reason, though. And they are each very much intertwined for Nanisca here no matter how much she wishes they weren’t. That’s what happens when the past you fought so hard to suppress comes flooding back with a vengeance. The pain and anguish born from it can’t simply be brushed off and ignored. Nanisca must confront it. The question she’ll need to ask is whether she must do so alone. Just because it seems she does with duty binding her to Ghezo’s whims, the Agojie would walk through fire to help anyway.
The result is a heartfelt drama proving how some bonds are stronger than blood (even when blood is involved) that also possesses the sort of large-scale action able to augment those emotions rather than distract from them. With great visuals and choreography making each battle a physically brutal dance, we get a sense of what these women are fighting for whether “each other” means the Agojie or Africa itself. Mbedu and Atim carry large portions of the film with their seriousness while Lynch lends a welcome strain of humor as her Izogie teaches Nawi the ropes, but The Woman King lives or dies with Davis. She’s more than up for the task, carrying the burden of a kingdom and Nanisca’s past onto a collision course with pure evil.
photography:
[1] Viola Davis stars in THE WOMAN KING. PHOTO BY: Ilze Kitshoff COPYRIGHT: © 2021 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ALL IMAGES ARE PROPERTY OF SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT INC. FOR PROMOTIONAL USE ONLY. SALE, DUPLICATION OR TRANSFER OF THIS MATERIAL IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
[2] Viola Davis and Thuso Mbedu star in THE WOMAN KING PHOTO BY: Ilze Kitshoff COPYRIGHT: © 2021 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ALL IMAGES ARE PROPERTY OF SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT INC. FOR PROMOTIONAL USE ONLY. SALE, DUPLICATION OR TRANSFER OF THIS MATERIAL IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
[3] Viola Davis and John Boyega star in The Woman King. PHOTO BY: Ilze Kitshoff COPYRIGHT: © 2021 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ALL IMAGES ARE PROPERTY OF SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT INC. FOR PROMOTIONAL USE ONLY. SALE, DUPLICATION OR TRANSFER OF THIS MATERIAL IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED.