The Weekend Review

Before watching it as part of this year’s London Film Festival, I did not know much about The Weekend. After having seen it, I realised that this is probably the best way of going into the film as the type of movie you want to know as little as possible about before walking into it. As a tense thriller, the movie works best when it leaves its audience guessing and wondering about what will happen next in the characters’ lives and how this one weekend is going to end for all those involved.

Set in Nigeria, The Weekend follows a newly engaged couple, Nikiya (Uzoamaka Aniunoh), a you woman who is longing to be part of a family, and Luke (Bucci Franklin). At the beginning of the film, Nikiya is pressuring Luke to introduce her to his family whom he has barely any with anymore. Reluctantly, he agrees, and the two visit Luke’s hometown for his parents’ wedding anniversary, on the condition that they will only stay one weekend. At first, Nikiya seems to immediately get along with Luke’s parents and his sisters but as the film goes on, everything starts to get stranger and more suspicious.

The cast is really impressive in all their respective roles in a movie that perfectly combines its more tense moments with some very funny scenes rooted in satire. It is a tricky balance to achieve, but this film most certainly succeeds in this matter, also thanks to the characterisation of its protagonists as we find out more and more about them as the film goes on. The actors work particularly well as an ensemble cast as their scenes together are a joy to watch when we can see how the actors are always informing each other’s performances in both the serious and humour moments, while truly creating a family dynamic on screen on which the entire movie relies on.

Some of the plot twists in the film may be predictable, which is ultimately why this movie is not particularly a stand-out of the festival for me, but I found its use of tropes very clever. In many ways, the movie uses the archetypes that are common in our literature from the Greek myths in both the narrative structure of the story and the fate of its characters. That is why the film is quite tragic in the end, in the Ancient Greek sense of the world. As the film goes on and we find out more about their past, it becomes increasingly clear that each of the protagonists is trying to escape their destiny.

But by the end of the film, it becomes heartbreakingly clear that they are bound to walk the same road their ancestors threaded, no matter how much they would want to avoid it and create a new future for themselves and the generation after them. It is in more ways than one a tale as old as time, but the Nigerian context of its production allows the story to have a fresh perspective on it for audiences who may not be familiar with Nigerian cinema before watching this movie.

Ultimately, The Weekend is a film that will have the audience laugh, jump out of their seat, and even be a little emotional at times. While it may not be the most memorable film of the year – or this London Film Festival – I still enjoyed it as an engaging thriller with some particularly stand-out performances by the ensemble cast that carries this film through with the comedy and tension they manage to create in their scenes together. Its setting also shines a light on Nigerian filmmaking, making it an even more fascinating and refreshing product.