Dora Akunyili-Inspired “Offshoot” Is a Waste of Good Concept

Life in law enforcement is never a piece of cake. The late NAFDAC boss, Dora Akunyili, would have attested to this and so does Kehinde Bankole in “Offshoot.” It might be trouble trying to imagine the emotional sacrifice such officers make in fulfilling their responsibilities, but this movie does the imagining for us, albeit without an outright solution.

Directed by Ugandan filmmaker, Ayeny T. Steve, “Offshoot” focuses on Nigeria’s war on drugs and its effect on the personal life of officers of the law tasked with such a dangerous yet crucial task. At the center of this fight is the Head of the National Drug Agency’s (NDA) Investigation and Operations department, Modesire Mbakwe – known as Dee – only just promoted to the position on her 40th birthday.

Being the first woman in the country’s history to sit in such a seat, she realizes she has to do twice as much to prove her worth and she does just with a series of successful raids on a drug cartel that seemed to propel her career. But her family life? Not so progressive.

Her husband, Dike (Kelechi Udegbe), is not a fan of the publicity and dangers that come with such a position and advises her to treat her drug-busting operations with a bottle of chill. But Dee loves her job more than anything in the world, not for the fun of it, but because of the opportunity it gives her to change lives and families. She doubles down on pursuing the cartel even when it becomes clear that she ruffles a few feathers along the way and is now essentially a moving target.

The movie does well to dwell on the rift between Dee and everyone around her: her partner, her mother, and colleagues. She must deal with insubordination and the inevitable comparisons with her male predecessor. In her fight, her only true ally seems to be her Chief of Staff, Tony (Ibrahim Suleiman). With him, she faces no opposition whatsoever and it seems the two share the same brain.

Parallels to the real-life story of Dora Akunyili, the late NAFDAC boss known for her crusade against counterfeit drugs, in “Offshoot” are hard to deny. While Dee’s character embodies a similar feminist spirit, the film weakens this narrative by putting her decision-making process on a shaky foundation and making her heavily reliant on the advice of male characters. In tight spots, her mental state appears in disarray, far from what we have come to know from the late Akunyili.

Save for an opening statistical data about drug addiction, nothing in this movie suggests that it sets out to explore the dangers of drug use or trafficking, at least not explicitly. It asks, “What price is there to pay to eradicate this evil”? It’s a question we solemnly hear seeing as the genre is saturated with the glamour of drug-busting operations and the lives of drug kingpins with no one seeming interested in the psychology of the other side of the fight.

Dee’s price, apart from the threat of a broken home, is discovering too much truth which eventually turns her life around forever. Disjointed character interactions don’t help matters either.

A protagonist like Dee should not be a difficult character to relate with. But writers, Temitope Bolade and Diche Enunwa, make it so, to her detriment. She is devoid of any motive or backstory that explains her underlying resolve to battle drug trafficking. What can be called supporting characters, as there are very few in this movie apart from Dike, lack the necessary weight needed to propel the story forward. Tony and Dee’s mother don’t do bad. But as is always in performing arts, a “meh” or “okay” show is almost always marked as “bad.”

Kehinde Bankole does the best she can with her character, borrowing her no-nonsense persona from “Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti” and bringing it to bear in “Offshoot,” although with less potency. She lends a commendable performance in the career vs family conundrum painted by the movie even if her chemistry with just about everyone else falters.

In the biopic, her character and its portrayal take center stage; this time though, her performance doesn’t. Kelechi Udegbe’s portrayal of Dike as an equally troubled man who also faces his dilemma – which is arguably more complex – outshines her. When he manages his furniture business, his Igbo tongue feels like he read Uzor Arukwe’s script in “A Tribe Called Judah.”

If you’re into plot twists and mysteries, then “Offshoot” is your film as the latter half revolves around uncovering the identity of the cartel boss, although you may have to exercise a little more patience than normal. The gritty or noir cinematography employed by the crew, alongside commendable work by the sound department, helps disperse and sell the air of mystery. This might perhaps explain the choice to leave the movie virtually humorless.

Besides that, there’s nothing to enjoy from Steve Ayeny’s latest offering. Even its trump card, the misdirection of the big baddie’s unraveling, tests the audiences’ patience one too many times, made worse by its pacing issues. Skin-deep character development dispels any iota of connection and sympathy that the audience would have otherwise established.

It might be unfair to compare “Offshoot” to Denis Villeneuve’s “Sicario” (2015) or David Ayer’s “End of Watch” (2012), both of which effectively explore the emotional toll cartel-fighting has on law enforcement officers. But even by director Steve’s standards – he made the highly-rated 2017 movie “Kong: Order From Above” – “Offshoot” doesn’t cut it.

On paper, “Offshoot” is meant to depict the emotional struggle of balancing career and family duties with the resolve of a strong leader. It executes this draft with a chick’s fragility rather than an eagle’s strength, leaving no impression and little desire to revisit the cinema.

Release Date: June 14, 2024

Runtime: 1 hour, 40 minutes

Streaming Service: Cinematic Release

Directed by: Ayeny T. Steve

Cast: Kehinde Bankole, Kelechi Udegbe, Ibrahim Suleiman, David Jones David, Gregory Ojefua, Bimbo Manuel, Tomiwa Kukoyi, Vera Ephraim, Fausat Balogun, Kevin Ushi, Steve Asinobi, Chukwu Martin, Princess Kossy Nwogu, Nonso Odogwu, Salisu D. Gezawa and Shewa Ale.