Akoni is about a man displaced from his country of Nigeria and magically finds himself in Sydney, Aus.
Then he meets a white Aussie girl, and they almost fall in love.
The film spouts that it's about a displaced person but it refuses to delve into the man's psyche or past or show us what's on his mind. The film tries to use visual storytelling with minimal dialogue, I applaud that as its the language of cinema - BUT - it fails to execute that language due to inexperience and lack of skill of the director. Its poor storytelling and terrible writing. It's actually really really boring as NOTHING really happens. To be honest there is NO real story here, it basically a bunch of scenes with the main actress looking very sad and moping around, she can barely speak or is shy - it's not clear till later on. My apologies but the main actress is also the director - and the acting skills by her are poor as is the main actor. Mark Coles Smith is a fine actor and stands out, but his character is just too much. Seasoned actor Simon El-Rahi is definitely an actor to watch and makes an impact as soon as you see a scene with him.
Its extremely slow film thats photographed well, has some nice music but nothing else that is exciting, compelling or even emotional. I honestly felt nothing. I was blown away from the trailer really hoping I was going to love it, the biggest problem about this film - is the lack of motivation of the main character - what is he trying to achieve?
There is no real goal here except for us to try and feel some contrived sorriness for the displaced African and the poor little attractive rich girl who lost someone in her life and this is the parallel and connects the 2 from different worlds.
The film ends abruptly as well and leaving me with no impact. A great achievement getting a film made - but poorly executed, sometimes you just need more dialogue, having a film with nothing = nothing.
Then he meets a white Aussie girl, and they almost fall in love.
The film spouts that it's about a displaced person but it refuses to delve into the man's psyche or past or show us what's on his mind. The film tries to use visual storytelling with minimal dialogue, I applaud that as its the language of cinema - BUT - it fails to execute that language due to inexperience and lack of skill of the director. Its poor storytelling and terrible writing. It's actually really really boring as NOTHING really happens. To be honest there is NO real story here, it basically a bunch of scenes with the main actress looking very sad and moping around, she can barely speak or is shy - it's not clear till later on. My apologies but the main actress is also the director - and the acting skills by her are poor as is the main actor. Mark Coles Smith is a fine actor and stands out, but his character is just too much. Seasoned actor Simon El-Rahi is definitely an actor to watch and makes an impact as soon as you see a scene with him.
Its extremely slow film thats photographed well, has some nice music but nothing else that is exciting, compelling or even emotional. I honestly felt nothing. I was blown away from the trailer really hoping I was going to love it, the biggest problem about this film - is the lack of motivation of the main character - what is he trying to achieve?
There is no real goal here except for us to try and feel some contrived sorriness for the displaced African and the poor little attractive rich girl who lost someone in her life and this is the parallel and connects the 2 from different worlds.
The film ends abruptly as well and leaving me with no impact. A great achievement getting a film made - but poorly executed, sometimes you just need more dialogue, having a film with nothing = nothing.