MOVIE REVIEW: The Youth President, produced by ETREM

Reviewed by Ajibare Abioye

Hey folks! You’re welcome to the review of The Youth President, from the stables of End-time Revival Drama Ministries and Film Production (ETREM). It was directed by Abiola Babatola ‘Nattytunez’.

The poster picture was good, with the design of the title giving the impression that the setting would be Anglican. The opening montage looked promising with the faces of characters withheld initially. I expected that the protagonist would then be given a dramatic or cinematic reveal, which would have created a good feel to the movie; however, the attack on the youth president in the opening scene forced the camera to fully reveal him in a way that made the earlier build up of little effect.

 

The Youth President basically talks about the trials of faith that confront a productive believer, while attempting to show us the reason for them, and tags it ‘The Mystery of the Cross’.

 

A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words. If there are twenty-four pictures in a second of video, that means a one-minute video could communicate what twenty-four thousand words would. The mystery that this film is premised on could have been made clearer if there had been more action and fewer words. Thus, The Youth President largely places exposition over drama. Though majority of the film uses flashback stories to illustrate its message, it still goes ahead to verbally explain those illustrations. A better method to adopt would be the ‘Show, Don’t Tell’ technique that engages the audience, rather than the film spelling everything out to them.

 

A commendable aspect of this production is the effective make-up and costuming done for the demons. Similarly, the visual effect used for the ‘bubble of grace’ was credible and had no glitches. Areas of improvement include the subtitling, as well as the predictable camera work for scene transitions, especially the pans used to indicate the oscillations between the past and the present. With regards to the soundtrack, it’s always better when the lyrics are correctly articulated and sung with some finesse.

 

The message of The Youth President is a deep one – that the work of salvation was finished on the cross and that we are the ones that now have to lay claim to it. I would hope that subsequently, a film would show us, in practical terms, what it means to walk in Christ’s finished works and how to do so. If there would be a sequel, addressing this would do the movie a world of good.

 

Alright, we’ve come to the end of this review. Have you seen The Youth President? What did you think about it? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.

You could watch the movie below: