Not an Orphan Movie Review by Ajibare Abioye

“Not an Orphan” is a movie from Faith-Lift Productions uploaded on YouTube in 2019. The movie stars Joshua Alawiye, Victoria Odesola, Kolade Segun-Okeowo, Tolulope Odesola, and several others including veterans like Morakinyo Abiodun, Adenike Aderemi-Fashikun – the director of the film, Yemi Adepoju, Abayomi Ojo and others, including one of the producers and the man who conceived the story, the Assistant General Overseer (Admin & Personell) National Secretary RCCG, Pastor J.F. Odesola.

It brings to the fore the life of a young man Daniel, who is an orphan but who finds meaning in a relationship with God, though some others think that there can be no meaningful relationship with someone of his origins.

One commendable thing about this movie is the effort and resources put into its production. This is by no means a cheap production. I don’t think I have seen so many crew members partake in the production of a Nigerian gospel movie, experienced hands too. There was almost a different person to each portfolio; the story, screenplay, production management, set design, music, etc were all undertaken by different sets of people. It is therefore no big surprise that the quality of the production is high. It is a feature movie by all standards. The shots taken, locations used and costuming are representative of a wide variety of choices, and show that a lot of time and money was put into this. I greatly appreciate the movie for this.

The message of the movie itself is so powerful that you’d find yourself ruminating on it afterwards. For fear of spoiling the movie for those that have not watched it, I don’t want to write too much about the plot nor the moral it passes across, but one thing is sure – this film is deep.

Daniel suffers rejection from people you wouldn’t expect it, and one is made to wonder what kind of Christianity doesn’t show love and kindness to other people, even if they are from entirely different backgrounds to ours.

The acting is quite convincing too and we can keep peeling through the layers to see the different ways in which this movie ministers to people.

However, I think that the movie misses out on making itself not only an impact, but an entertaining story; it misses out on making itself much more memorable than it was. At the end, the message shone through and would make you spell-bound, but I feel strongly that this movie could have been so much more. I’m referring here to a plot angle not explored at all, or barely explored in the movie – the relationship between Daniel and Deola.

It would have been a proper foil for the relationship between Daniel and Sharon which kick-started this movie. We see two lovebirds who later deliver a beautiful rendition of “You are the Reason I Live”. We don’t know how the relationship started but we feel like that they deeply love each other as they make heart-felt promises to each other when Daniel is about to leave the country. We might have seen more of Daniel’s love-mode had the movie shown us how the friendship between him and Sharon developed into what they eventually ended the movie as. The script could have explored it more and it could have been something dramatic or at least, endearing to the audience. I feel this would have also given then Tolulope Odesola (now Tolulope Mike-Bamiloye) more to work with and to do. It must be said though that the music at the end credits by the voices of Joshua Alawiye, Tolu and Victoria Odesola was beautifully rendered.

Nonetheless, “Not an Orphan” is a nice movie with a message everyone ought to consider and take action about.

To watch/download the movie, click the link below:

https://youtu.be/Bgx1q32O51E