Starring: Yvonne Nelson, Deyemi Okanlawon, Kweku Elliott, Michelle Hammond

Synopsis:

A young woman suffers the hardships of life after the death of her mother and the betrayal of her closest relative.  

Review:

Awurabena (Yvonne Nelson) suffered tremendous loss and pain. At a young age, her mother committed suicide and she was left to fend for her younger brother. No one could afford to care for both of them so her brother lived with a distant aunt while she stayed with her uncle. Soon after, Awurabena was living in a ritualistic cult after her uncle sold her to its ringleader. 

Awurabena lived life as a slave among other women in the organization. Life seemed bleak until the day she met Kay (Deyemi Okanlawon) by the river. The two became acquainted and fell in love but Kay eventually left for work in the city and promised to one day come back for her. 

Later she discovered she was pregnant and she had no way of finding Kay. Shortly after, she was kicked out of the cult and sent to a shelter for pregnant women. The shelter wasn’t exactly a safe haven and soon she was running for her life. Awurabena’s next mission was to find Kay and when she finally found him, she encountered another influx of misfortunes. 

Let’s Talk. This story commenced when Awurabena was at the end of her turbulent journey. As she told her life story to the media it was simultaneously narrated to the audience through flashbacks.   

Awurebena’s life took the road of despair, poverty, death, destruction, and then some. It was as though whatever could go wrong went wrong. Even when life seemed to look up, negativity still lurked nearby. The birth of Awurabena’s child brought even more circumstances that she had to deal with.   

The heart of the story examines adversity. How do we deal with it? Stress is often temporary and one must fight until the light shining at the end of the tunnel is visible. 

Pascal Amanfo wrote and directed the movie. It was a welcome and emotional distraction from his multiple story, infidelity, rhetoric. This time he switched gears and produced something that was meaningful and profound. 

The story layout was efficient because although we knew Awurabena would land on her feet, there were parts that weren’t so apparent. Her story was worth telling because it provokes one to look at life.  There’s always someone who’s worse off so we should always count our blessings. 

Performances? Pretty good. Yvonne Nelson abandoned the glamour to totally transform into a poverty-stricken, single-mom, character. The remaining cast did well also. Direction, audio, and video were also satisfactory. 

“If Tomorrow Never Comes” then how are you handling today? We must live life to the fullest. RECOMMEND