#Nollywood Movie Review of ‘A Mile from Home’

In a Mile from Home, Jude (Tope Tedela), an otherwise well-bred youngster, joins a violent secret group, The Cul, in the university; derailing him from his academic pursuit and not finishing with a degree.  However, he remains within the school environment to unleash mayhem together with Suku (Chidozie Nzeribe), the leader of the group.

Tedela is outstanding in his role as Jude, so is Nzeribe as Suku.  The other cult boys look and sound roughlike impudent youngsters.  The involvement of outside influences like the drug baron who uses these students to advance his dirty deals is a sad reminder that some of many secret societies in campuses are ready tools in the hands of Nigerian politicians who arm them; using them to intimidate their opponents during elections.  These youth refuse to return these weapons afterwards and this is one of the reasons for the spread of illegal firearms in the society.

The choice of the bush as the final battleground is great as many of these bad groups carry out their ruthless activities in thejungle.  It is said that they carry out their initiations with attendant blood oath in the bush and even hold their regular meetings in the same place, so that their existence remains unknown to the public.  It is also said that clashes break out between rival groups in the jungle or they deliberately arrange to meet there in order to settle scores through violence.
The senselessness in the deeds of these young people and the fact they do not seem to be numbed by the blood they spill are matters to worry about.  The cutting edge visual effects in the film are reminders that some movie practitioners are unrelenting in their bid to acquire knowledge that facilitates the production of world-class films.

There is no humanity in Suku; he is an absolute monster!  Just like Jude, who guards Deba (Eric Nwanso) jealously, he could have had someone for whom he was ready to lay down his life.  There is really nothing likeable about him, but the screenplay could have given him a benign side.
Ivie’s (ToluAkinbileje’s) character is poorly developed as well.  She does not have a remarkable story; she just dates every guy.  So what becomes of her in the end?  If her character was well fleshed out, she might have been one of the standout stars of the film.  The film’s subtitle is fraught with mistakes.  Please, it should be revised.  For instance, ‘lose’ is spelled as ‘loose’.There are a few grammatical errors in the film: ‘It is not only the banks that holds bulk of money.’ (‘It is not only the banks that hold bulks of money.’)  ‘I call it bravery, but stupid.’  (stupidity should have been the right word).
Why did they trust the dim-witted new entrant to drive after their operation?  The establishment shots should have been from a university instead of shots from a residential area.

Eric Aghimien jolts Nollywood with this action film on misguided undergraduate life in Nigerian universities, a common feature of university education in the 1990s and early 2000s.  There had been films on clandestine groups in universities (Another Campus Tale, Rampage), but A Mile from Home exposes the numbing violence these young people mete out to one another in a most tear-jerking fashion.Needless to say, these vicious crimes are carried out for very frivolous reasons like having interest in the same girls and unwarranted rivalry between opposing cult groups.
Tade Ogidan (Hostages), Teco Benson (Formidable Force, State of Emergency) and Izu Ojukwu (Sitanda), who are among the few directors that have shot quality action films, have a worthy‘scion’ in Aghimien.

Posted in: Movies