Tainted Canvas: A tale birth from pain, a beauty formed in darkness.
I have always opined that telling our stories in the true state it happened is enough to make blockbusters. The African community is blessed and plagued with its unique stories. I personally recommend every person of color to take time to see this movie. I woke up at 3am to see this movie, mid night is a different level of concentration for me. I needed to get the juice of this beautiful work uninterrupted. The fact that the movie is based on a true story is even more throbbing.
Segilola Ogidan is a Nigerian actress and producer who is most popularly known for her role as Tonye in The Men’s Club. Its interesting to note that she is the idea behind The Men's club (kindly check YouTube for the sit com if you have never seen it) Segilola Ogidan born and schooled in Lagos, Nigeria She moved to London and acquired a Bachelor’s Degree in Media Arts from the Royal Holloway University, London then did a Masters in Cinema Studies from the University of Bristol, UK. During her Master’s, she majored in Screen Writing.
Tainted Canvas features the story of Rayo, an African artist living in London trying to make a success of millennial immigrant life. she gets a call from her aunt in Nigeria that her Mom is in hospital, Rayo is torn apart and the flashes of going back home to face the traumas she ran away from in the first place comes back. Tainted Canvas intimates us with the story of childhood trauma and abuse and how that is almost permanent in a child’s life further down the line but also shows the power of confronting that abuse for better or worse.
Content warnings : Mental Health Trauma, Death, Rape and Sexual Assault.
This movie was produced in 2020 and I am here wondering why the publicity for this colossal, behemothic and Mondo production did not get the right publicity or even almost no publicity at all, I only got to find out through my brother Femi and I thought to give it audience.
Segilola Ogidan ability to interpret the story and then the role, I am almost tempted to think that the story is about her and her childhood but only she can tell us that. This is an important topic that hits me differently when It comes up, I grew up around very vulnerable young girls and trust me the mothers love to a child especially the female child cannot be over emphasized.
The data for female abuse in Africa is available just by a google search, you would be shocked, almost all my female friends have a story of abuse, either from mother, father, teacher, cousin or one male figure who should never do such to them, in the end leaves almost all of them more broken than ever.
While growing up I made sure that if anyone remembered me at all, it would never ever be because I abused them sexually or an assault or even an attempt to to try to get uncomfortable with them. I think we should raise our sons with a such important orientation because the abusers of women are men and in some cases women but today this blurb is about men and mothers.
Some parents, many parents have no business with raising kids, I saw this first hand while growing up, some day I would go into full details of my childhood and share some important details, That said, Mothers have a huge role in making sure the self esteem of their kids are intact and built because you see, the world is crazy and you do not want the media or friends to shape them or worst still your teenage daughter in the hands of an abuser who she thinks love her.
Segilola Ogidan used flash backs to give us details of past, present and we are able to make a balanced verdict of what truly transpired in the lives of each important character. That scene where Tina Mba Knelt down to plead with Rayo is a deep scene, there is an underlining message there for African community to learn to apologize to their kids and tell them their history and the explanations for certain decisions.
One thing stood out, this movie is intentional, well casted and the story line is celestial.
Swan song: Please don't have kids if you are not ready to raise them properly. Please don't be chafed with me, truth is, kids are a blessing if raised properly and if not, we pass trauma and pain to another generation.
