A dance to forget is a sad and political love story about a young girl, Lizzie (Nancy Isime), who is in love with a broke young man, Nicholas (Fredrick Leonard). While she is out performing a cultural dance at a royal party one day, she catches the attention of the village King, Igwe (Alex Usifo). In spite of her resistance and protests she is forced into marriage by her family, of the much older but extremely rich Igwe.
This film only highlights, but doesn’t criticize so much, the issue of “Big man-ism” in Africa; where the rich and the powerful easily flaunt their wealth and very often use it as a tool to oppress the poor.
Forced marriages and marital rape still persists in many parts of Africa today, mostly due to poverty. A little spoiler alert to highlight the impunity, is that the Igwe suffers no consequences for any of his actions and it is just accepted.
I found the sound scoring a bit annoying at times, evident even in the trailer, but I would still recommend you watch this film.
Overall , it is a well made film, written and directed by Nestor Orji , with a very cultural feel that would appeal to everyone.
In trying to transform itself, and move away from the stigma of making inferior quality movies, Nollywood has evolved, sometimes sadly into shooting bigger budgeted and westernized-styled stories of late; where you see more opulence and modernized living as opposed to rural and cultural settings. Storytelling, I feel is now approached from a foreign outlook. So it is somewhat refreshing to see a modern rendition of a classic Nigerian style tale on screen once again.
