User talk:Ogbonna Chisom

OGBONNA CHISOM CHRISTIANA'S VIEW ON THE MOVIE "DRY" BY STEPHANIE LINUS
The movie DRY is narrated in the third person narrative which is also referred to as the omniscient narrator (all knowing). It is a point of view that does not reveal events from the perspective of any character in the movie, but rather, looks at events with impartial eyes. The omniscient narrator chronicles events and dialogues from a complete and accurate stand point. This all knowing narrator jumps from one scene to another, following characters and the progression of narrative. The director of the movie DRY employs this point of view. Through this, the director has access to all the characters, jumping between space and time, diving into secret events and hidden thoughts. Also, through this narrative style, the director exposes the dispositions of characters in the movie. Third person pronouns as “them”, “she”, “he”, “him”, “his”, “her”, “they” are employed. This is usually done in order to give a more rounded description of events without leaving vital details out as well as to maintain the feeling of originality all through the movie in bringing out the plight of the child bride and its impact in the society.

DRY is a 2014 Nigerian film scripted and directed by Stephanie Linus. The movie attempts to address the issue of child marriage and Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF) which is a strong concern in the heart of the storywriter. The plot of the movie revolves around the life of Doctor Zara Robbins, an award-winning medical doctor in a hospital in Wales, who seemed to be living the best days of her career and the pathetic ordeal of Halima, a thirteen years old Nigerian girl who finds herself forced to forfeit her childhood and marry Sani a sixty years old man in her village. At the start, it appears to be two separate stories, until the climax of the movie is when the two seemingly separate stories become one. The story of Dr Zara is that of one who has had a troubled past that caused her to seek the services of a psychologist—referred to by an alternative term Shrink; As an orphaned teenager, she was raped by her uncle and thrown out of the house when she informed her aunt about the abuse. With nowhere to go, she found herself at Madam Kojo’s house where she worked as a prostitute to make money for Madam Kojo as well as maintain her stay in the house. Whenever she refused to do the job, she would be raped by the boys that worked for Madam Kojo. Mrs Robbins, who appears to be a medically inclined social worker and volunteer though her exact profession is not revealed in the movie, saves and adopts her on one of her medical missions to Africa. Despite her new life with Mrs Robbins, she still has nightmares of the rape by her aunt’s husband, regrets about the loss of her baby, and recalls how she suffered VVF. Meanwhile, Halima is faced with the nightmare that has become her life. Although Italic textAfrica is mentioned repeatedly as where Halima is from rather than a precise country and community, Kastina-Ala in the Middle-Belt region of Nigeria was displayed as the location of Halima’s birth and residence. Her ordeal started when Sani began to give her parent gifts and showed an interest in Halima, with the intention that someday she would be given to him as a bride. When Halima turned thirteen, he felt she was matured enough to be his wife and so requested for her hand in marriage. Despite Halima’s plea to stay in her father’s compound, her parents felt it was in her best interest to get married before she becomes old and unattractive. Preparations were made and in no time, she was married off to Sani. The search for answers by Dr Zara to reconcile with her past brings the two main characters together. However, the story is not about Dr Zara but about Halima and how she struggles through life as a child bride. Halima faced frequent rape from her husband, as well as several forms of physical and emotional abuse. On one occasion she runs back to her father’s house at night, thinking she will be shielded and protected but all she got ware harsh words from her father who asked her to return to her husband’s house and be a good wife. The next morning her mother took her back to her husband and she was mercilessly beaten by him for leaving his house. Her situation was made worse by the presence of her husband’s mother and her co-wives. She was not allowed to leave the house for anything anymore, and was constantly reminded of how much was paid for her dowry. Time passed, Halima got pregnant but suffered in the hands of a traditional birth attendant (TBAs) who had little or no professional knowledge in midwifery and the threat her unsafe practices posed to the mother and her unborn child. Halima was left to wallow in untold pain for days as the TBA insisted that she should be kept in the house with a prescription of some concoction that she said would ease the pain. Her statement “All these children for this village, na me dey collect their deliver” reveals her illiteracy. Not withstanding, Halima’s delivery and life was entrusted in the hands of the TBA and the consequence is the death of her baby and damage to her reproductive organs as she ends up with VVF after child delivery. Her unpleasant condition as a result of this led to discrimination and stigma by her husband, members of her marital home and even her own father, who all thought she had been possessed by witchcraft or was being punished for a heinous crime she committed. She was not allowed in the market or any form of social gathering. People ceased to visit her and insults and disrepute befell her husband. Eventually, she was thrown out of the house by her husband and mother in-law. Around the same period, Dr Zara made a journey to Africa to represent her unwell mother on her (Mrs Robbins) annual health mission. However, it was not just the medical mission that brought her to Nigeria but also the need to confront her past and seek answers from Madam Kojo who had sold her child, as discovered by Mrs Robbins during earlier investigations. Coincidentally, she travelled to Katina-Ala Local Government Area in Nigeria where over one thousand women were waiting to be ‘repaired’ of VVF. Upon her arrival, she realized how serious and common child marriage was being practised leading to an increase in cases of fistula. Families are unwilling to take women to the hospital to be delivered of their babies. Rather, they prefer the services of untrained TBAs but when complications arise which the TBAs cannot handle, that is when the women are then taken to the hospital. By then, it is almost too late and often times, most of them do not make it out of the hospital alive. Dr Zara sought to end that trend. Hence she spearheaded the establishment of a mobile clinic which would reach out to those unwilling or unable to visit the hospital. The movie reveals several practices that encourage child marriage. In doing this, the movie shows Halima’s ordeal getting worse, isolated from family and society having lost her child and suffering from VVF. Fatima, who happens to be one of her co-wife attempts to care for her by bringing her food in the abandoned building that became her new home, she cleans her up and gives her words of encouragement her. Her illness worsens as all hope and attempts to get help for her failed. Dr Zara, on the other hand, has been helping several other teenage girls get their lives back by conducting free fistula surgery and even offering to reach out to them in their homes through the mobile clinic. With the desire to find her child still paramount, Dr Zara eventually traces Madam Kojo who had been ill with a stroke, which had paralyzed her and made it difficult for her to speak. After two unsuccessful attempts by Dr Zara to make her reveal the whereabouts of her (Dr Zara) daughter, a major surprise in the movie plays out as Madam Kojo leads Dr Zara to Halima’s parents’ house where Madam Kojo points to Halima’s mother as the woman to whom she sold Dr Zara’s daughter. Halima’s mother denies this vehemently and they were sent out of the compound. Meanwhile, Halima’s health continued to deteriorate. Aisha, one of the girls who Dr Zara has helped, told Halima of a new doctor who helped her become ‘DRY’, but Halima was already depressed and had given up all hope of getting her life back. It was at the point when Halima’s health had worsened and she was already coughing out blood that she was taken to Dr Zara. On seeing Halima’s mother, it dawned on her that Halima was her daughter. She did all she could to save her but it was too late and Halima died. Finally, after several attempts to get the attention of the government on the issue of child marriage and amend the clause in the constitution that puts girls at risk of becoming child brides, Dr Zara finally catches the attention of the speaker of the National House of Assembly who agreed to hear her out. She expresses her hurt and demands that girls be allowed to go to school and have their childhood. Awareness was created about fistula and the construction of a Halima Fistula Hospital and Training Centre was initiated in honour of Halima and all the girls who had died of VVF.

SETTINGS The movie DRY and the events therein are set in Aberystwyth, Wales but a large portion of the scenes acted in African setting. The latter is depicted like a Northern region, with the inhabitants wearing the attires of the Hausa people of Northern Nigeria. There is no description of the area other than a display on the screen giving the name of the location as Kastina-Ala. Research shows that Katsina-Ala is a Local Government Area (LGA) in Benue State of the Middle-Belt region of Nigeria. The Middle-Belt region of Nigeria is predominantly occupied by the Tiv and Idoma nations, but demographic data shows that the Katsina-ala has a significant population of Hausas. This setting was simply referred to as Africa, and without prior knowledge, one would conclude that Africa is a country rather than a continent. The inhabitants of the village were mostly illiterates who made their living through various forms of petty trading. Although research shows that the location is an agrarian society, farming was never shown in the movie. The rural nature of the village cut across their lack of qualitative education and their inability to see the harm that child marriage cause the young girls in their community. The village had a community health care centre that was functional, though not fully equipped as it was described to have been abandoned by the government in terms of funding and payment of staff. Sadly, members of the community were unwilling to go there for child delivery or any form of treatment until it was too late. From the scenes of the movie we see Kastina-Ala as a typical African environment, precisely a rural village with some obnoxious customs and traditions that particularly threaten the life and rights of the girl child. Despite the traditional state of the village, there were elements of civilization. For instance, they are seen wearing modern clothing. Although no reference is made to any school and we don’t see children go to school in the movie, we hear them code switching and code mixing from English to Hausa. The belief system of the community appeared to be of the Muslim faith and Allah is seen as the highest authority. This is revealed through exclamations referring to Allah when something went wrong such as when we hear women shouting, when Halima’s child died. However, there was no scene in which the Muslim prayers were performed. Extensively, the general atmosphere portrayed the area of Kastina-Ala as one where the practice of child marriage was prevalent and acceptable, and it was not unusual for girls of about ten to be betrothed and subsequently married. The childhood of girls was constantly threatened. Polygamy was also an accepted norm: a man was free to marry as many wives as possible and age was of no barrier as long as he could take care of them. Typical of such villages, it was permissible for a man to resort to beating his wives should they refuse any of his demands. Little demographic information about Wales is revealed by the movie. The tools of cinematography are used however to depict the sharp contrast in infrastructural development through the wide area shots and to show the level of enlightenment and readiness to use modern health facilities. Towards the end of the movie, when Dr. Zara makes an impassioned speech about child marriage to the speaker of the House of Assembly, we realise that the film is set in a democratic Nigerian because we see the parliamentary system of government in place.