With his first feature film Dara Ju, director Anthony Onah has masterfully captured the immigrant experience, but also created a perfect look at the striving of ambitious young people.
Seyi (Aml Ameen) is the son of Nigerian parents who has made it big. He went to Harvard, works on Wall Street, and is generally living the American dream. The problem is that Seyi isn’t doing things the right way. He takes Adderall to keep up and even steals a business idea from a friend of his. When he engages in insider trading, things begin to fall apart.
Back home, things are just as bad. His father (Souleymane Sy Savane) has had a stroke but has also been unfaithful to his mother (Michael Hyatt), an act Seyi cannot forgive.
His love life appears to be on track, especially after he meets and falls for Liz (Lucy Griffiths), a medical student who exudes stability. He’s smitten but will not confide all of his secrets to her. The tension becomes unsustainable.
Dara Ju works well as a love story, better as one about family, but still keeps the audience rapt with aspects of being a thriller. When all of Seyi’s world begins to crumble, we watch as a ducks and dives, trying to keep it all together. Eventually, he has to face himself in ways that hurt but will ultimately help.
Ameen and Griffiths are pair of British actors who carry this most American movie. Don’t be surprised to see them pop up in bigger roles soon. Onah directs with a deft hand and will surely be afforded many more opportunity to tell great stories.
Dara Ju succeeds not just in its initial exploration of social and geographic identities, but because Seyi’s struggles speak to an America that can never reach the finish line, even as it breaks those trying hardest to get there.
