Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Lionheart’ On Netflix, A Nigerian Film About A Woman Trying To Save Her Family’s Bus Company

Did you know that the Nigerian film industry is so robust it’s earned the nickname “Nollywood”? You learn something new every day when you have a Netflix subscription, especially if you follow their international acquisitions. Lionheart is their first Nigerian movie, and it’s about a young woman trying to succeed in a male-driven industry. Read on for more…

LIONHEART: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Adaeze (Genevieve Nnaji) is in charge of logistics for the Lionheart Bus Company, which strives to provide safe and well-appointed transportation to the people of Southeast Nigeria, and over the last 30 years has grown to dominate the region. While she’s called out to the bus park to negotiate with disgruntled drivers who aren’t getting paid, she’s also involved in a high-level bid for a contract on a new public bus system in the region. To say she’s worked hard to get to where she is, in an industry dominated by men, is an understatement.

In the pitch meeting for the municipal bid, though, her father and the company’s founder/CEO, Chief Ernest Obiagu (Pete Edochie) has a heart attack. But instead of naming Adaeze the temporary head of the company, he appoints his brother Godswill (Nkem Owoh), who has been away from the company for years and is quirky to say the least.

Adaeze expresses her bitter disappointment to her mother Abagail (Onyeka Onwenu), but can’t fume for too long, because the pair find out that Ernest took out a massive loan to buy buses in anticipation of winning the public transport bid, and he’s defaulting on the payments. And he did so without telling Adaeze or anyone else.

Faced with going out of business or — even worse — being bought and gutted by the company’s biggest rival, Adaeze and Godswill set out to get more financing or extend loan payment deadlines. Stonewalled, they finally turn to Godswill’s suggestion to merge with a bus company in the Northwest who wants to enter their market, a proposal that gets helped along by a lot of fortunate coincidences.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Really any movie where a woman tries to get ahead in a male-dominated field, like Working Girl, combined with a child trying to prove to his/her parents that he/she can run the family business.

Performance Worth Watching: Nnaji, who also directed, plays Adaeze as both strong and vulnerable, but determined to keep Lionheart a family company that has treated its employees and customers well for her whole life. What’s interesting is that there’s no hint of a story where “she’s got her act together in the business world but her love life is a mess!”, like you’d see in an American movie with a similar plot. Its pretty refreshing, and it unburdens Nnaji from having to deal with that aspect and just concentrate on Adaeze’s business skills and family orientation.

Memorable Dialogue: “You are the pendulum of my life,” Ernest says to Adaeze. “If you stop swinging, I’m gone.”

Single Best Shot: When Adaeze and Godswill go to a bank looking for a loan, Godswill offers the banker a bribe to approve it. The banker’s request? Adaeze. That’s when Godswill gets up and smacks the banker. What follows is a cool pan from cell lock to cell lock after the two end up in jail.

Sex and Skin: Nothing, aside from a banker looking at Adaeze’s cleavage in one scene.

Our Take: Lionheart is Netflix’s first Nigerian film. The Nigerian film industry is robust, and as we mentioned above, it’s earned the nickname “Nollywood” because of it. Not knowing a lot about Nollywood films, we can only judge this film on its own merits. And in that regard, Lionheart is a film with fine performances and a feel good story that doesn’t quite know where it wants to go.

At first, we think this is going to be a story about how Adaeze has to work with her wacky uncle Godswill, who wants to station himself in the waiting area to see all the employees and leads them in inspirational song in the morning. Then it switches to the pair’s search to get the deadline to pay the loan extended. Then it switches yet again, to Adaeze and Godswill’s encounter with the family that owns the company they want to merge with.

So, while Nnaji doesn’t quite nail the tone of the movie in her director’s role, the theme of trying to save the family business is consistent and makes her quest to save it watchable. It also gives an insight into what life is like in Nigeria for the middle and upper classes, and how companies are such family affairs that the CEO is often called “Chief”. So it works quite well as a window into a country most Netflix subscribers here in the states know nothing about.

Our Call: STREAM IT. It’s a feelgood story the entire family can watch, and Nnaji’s performance makes you want to see Adaeze win in the end.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Watch Lionheart on Netflix