Starring:  Zainab Balogun, Chris Attoh, Ini Dima-Okojie

Synopsis:  When a man ends a long-term relationship with an imaginary girlfriend to commit to his real life fiancee, his life is intruded upon with obsession and spiritual warfare. 

Review:

It all started when Richard (Chris Attoh) was a young boy. He developed a friendship with the imaginary Sylvia (Zainab Balogun), who he only saw in his dreams. Whenever they parted she handed him a red hibiscus, a symbol of their relationship. 

But Richard grew up, earned a degree, and had a successful career. The only thing missing was a wife when he met Ghemisola (Ini Dima-Okojie).  He broke up with Sylvia and married Ghemisola and life seemed grand until disgruntled Sylvia reappeared to wreak havoc on his life.  

Let’s Talk. Dreams versus reality. Dreams versus nightmares. And good versus evil were the forces in this story. The main character, Richard, had a spiritual connection with Sylvia from childhood, a woman he saw while sleeping. She served a purpose in his life for years as she provided solace and answers to his problems. But as the Bible states, when one becomes a man he puts away childish things so when Richard grew up he parted ways with her. The rejection caused Sylvia’s sheer anger and determination to surface. Was she a friend or some sort of witch? 

Sylvia was a dream that Richard made a reality. The hibiscus flower represented immortality and the power she had over him. She wouldn’t let him move on without her so it was either he lived a miserable life on earth or died to rejoin her in spirit. Either way, Sylvia wasn’t going away.   

The story didn’t reveal what caused Richard to want to escape reality at such a young age but that was a minor flaw compared to all the other things that were great. 

The genre is ‘thriller” although there were hilarious scenes. The conference room was most memorable when Sylvia disrupted Richard during an important presentation. He stood in front of his co-workers fighting off a person only he could see, as the staff peered in amazement at a guy that was clearly losing his mind. 

In the same scene Richard slapped his assistant. He always reminded her of office “boundaries” yet he was the one that crossed the line. It’s odd that some Nollywood movies that attempt comedy fail miserably while this thriller succeeded at a few laughs. 

Performances were top notch and the story may not have worked without the talent of Zainab Balogun who not only held her own as the obsessive Sylvia, but she brought a variety of layers to the character.  

This movie was extraordinary in the sense that it wasn’t typical Nollywood. It started at the end where Richard was in a psychiatric hospital and worked it’s way backward to show how he got there. It worked with a descriptive pace that exhibited the relationships and their destructions.

The philosophy of romance in the spiritual realm interfering with earthly affairs made a compelling script. “Sylva” transported us to a world of fantasy and tampered with our senses to the point where we too had to decipher visions from reality. RECOMMEND