“The Wait” brings the pain of many Nigerian women to the fore

“The Wait” is a 2021 Nollywood faith-based drama that takes you on a ride, highlighting societal issues along the way, but blinks too many times and pushes the audience to adjust at intervals to put together the scraps to understand the story.

The movie is inspired by the book “God’s Waiting Room” written by Nigerian lawyer Yewande Zaccheaus and tells the stories of several women dealing with infertility issues.

Title: "The Wait"
Writer: Tomi Adesina (screenplay)
Director: Yemi Morafa, Fiyin Gambo
Cast: Kunle Remi, Ini Dima Okojie, Jimmy Odukoya, Nse Ikpe-Etim, Kate Henshaw-Nuttal, Mike Folarin, etc
Running Time: 2 hours

The Plot – “The Wait”

In life, there is a natural order. A time for when dreams become reality. This usually takes time.

The Wait, 2021

That is how “The Wait” begins, and you naturally relate it to the Nollywood industry as we wait for producers and directors to catch up with trends and better ways of presenting stories.

Read also: “Shanty Town” lacks originality, but actors display individual brilliance

The movie begins with a narration that hints at the kind of story you are about to see – a woman screaming from childbirth, the anxiety in between, the baby comes, followed by the regular doctor’s “congratulations, it’s a girl” announcement. Only this time, the baby goes back almost immediately to the beyond. Ogbanje behaviour, you will call it.

The next few minutes are scenes we are not sure should be part of post-production. Yemi and Fiyin may call it a build-up. But, it is a series of blanks and continues to the end.

Then, we realise that it is not all about infertility and touch on chasing your dreams and friendship. But, all that is subtle.

We finally get to the waiting room, an AA meeting setting, but for women waiting for ‘the fruit of the womb’.

Here, we share our burdens, our fears. We listen to each other. We tell each other our stories. We make no judgement whatsoever.

Nara

Ultimately, the film revolves around an obstetrician named Nara (Nse Ikpe-Etim) who first-hand witnesses the struggles that come with childbirth. This inspires the support group she created for women with infertility issues.

There is bliss at the end of the story.

What we think

As with many other Nollywood movies, the dialogue does not have substance and is uninspiring. Quiet in poetic elements, proverbs, or sentences that can be turned into quotes.

Nara says something that causes a rush: “We all keep smiling to keep alive, don’t we?” – a reference to the fact that most Nigerians suffer a lot yet smile to cover all of the pain.

Away from that narrative, Nollywood writers often distract the audience with what they think is comic relief, or ‘stories inside stories’. “The Wait” could have stayed on infertility, the side stories of the internal pain of women, and other health issues. Somto’s (Chimezie Imo) story is a distraction that should not have reached post-production.

The audience may have been drawn into deep emotional states if the setting did not have competition outside of the waiting room.

“The Wait” draws the audience to women’s pain from the inside and outside of their homes.

Go deeper:

No doubt, infertility can be a challenging and emotional experience for women. Some common issues include:

• Physical pain from procedures such as IVF
• Emotional distress from the stress of trying to conceive
• Feelings of loss and sadness
• Guilt, shame, or a sense of failure
• Strain on relationships with partners, friends, and family
• Financial strain from medical treatments
• Difficulty coping with the uncertainty of the infertility journey.

Yet, “As humans, we have this knack of holding on to our problems and keeping them close so we don’t forget them. But, we need to use the boot,” Nara tells the other women in the waiting room.

If only women support each other like Tomi Adesina tries to portray.

Stream or skip?

We love Nollywood, but not only rich kids go through infertility issues. Besides that, the whole story would have taken just one hour or less, and we would have fallen deep into our emotions.

We like how “The Wait” raises this issue, though.