You’re welcome to another Fantalk episode. Today, we’ll be looking at a movie that promises to be really good; we’re talking about PATRICK SYNDROME from Seyi Obembe.
This movie perhaps holds a special place for us at this time because there are striking similarities between the movie and what the world is going through at the moment. The writer himself has confessed in an instagram post of his in March that the outbreak of COVID-19 has been like a déjà-vu for him because in Patrick Syndrome, there’s a white man that dies of an unknown virus in a village.
This is not the only work of art that has seemingly predicted this lockdown period. If you’ve been following the novels of Opeyemi Akintunde, you’d be familiar with THE SCIENTIST’S GOD, a novel that talks about a certain Islingbee virus. It’s a wonderful novel and I think the last episode was posted some weeks ago. You can check out Opeyemi Ojerinde Akintunde Official on Facebook to follow the story. She’s a writer of so many other novels – ISOKENE, STEPPING INTO MAGGIE’S SHOES, MY FATHER’S FARMLAND, and so on.
From instagram posts, the talk of the movie had been brewing since April 27 last year. By December 8, there was the first mention of Patrick Syndrome where we got to know Juliana Olayode would play Nkem. The production was in November and as at March 26, it was still in post production. By April 14, the movie was set.
We have a couple of production pictures to look at and a trailer to examine, and as usual, we’ll be making cast, crew and plot guesses. So, let’s do just that!
- CAST
We see a host of actors here which includes Seyi Obembe (The Final Contest, 2017; It’s Complicated, 2017). Seyi Obembe is Patrick and the sickness was probably named after him. Doyin Hassan, whom I’m sure you remember from Captives of the Mighty also features, as well as Ifeoluwa Seyi Obembe. It’s an exciting prospect that this movie features the hilarious duo of the Wooli Agba skits – I’m talking about Wooli Agba Ayo Ajewole and his sidekick Dele Omo Wooli Mide Oladimeji. Patrick Syndrome also stars Sam Ajibola, Juliana Olayode, Seun Oni, Johnson Babatola, Adeola Oluwagbemi, and Toyin Okelola and Ben Schroeder. So, this production boasts a lot of talents and we should anticipate solid individual and collective performances.
2. CREW
Patrick Syndrome is directed by Adeoye Omoniyi, produced by Seyi Obembe, shot by Akin Alabi, and that’s not surprising because from the trailer, we can see that the picture quality is high. We could assume that Johnson Babatola would be in charge of set design here. If The Final Contest is anything to go by, this story is co-written by Seyi Obembe and Ifeoluwa Seyi-Obembe.
3. PLOT
A missionary from Sierra Leone is on an assignment to bring the gospel to a certain Nigerian village – the Ewenla community. Unfortunately, he comes down with a viral haemorrhagic fever which appears to be contagious because Juliana Olayode’s character seems to be showing symptoms of it. The situation described in the trailer bears a lot of resemblance to what we have today: she’s being questioned about whom she’s had contact with and her explanation shows she’s a graduate of Medicine on the compulsory one-year service to the fatherland. She’s isolated in less than desirable circumstances and the places she’s been are probably being fumigated.
Later on, we see that it’s like the virus has spread because when offered a handshake by Ifeoluwa Seyi-Obembe’s character, Dr Patrick declines, explaining verbatim: there’s a viral outbreak in the country and everyone is just advised to restrict body contact. That sounds a lot like COVID-19, doesn’t it?
Seyi Obembe and Juliana Olayode seem to have both graduated from the same university and course in the same year. It also seems like they have a relationship between them.
I think we have at least three scenes where we’ll be treated to some good music. If you’ve watched The Final Contest, you’ll understand what I’m talking about. This movie has a genre of its own that I think was launched by The Final Contest: DraMusiComedy. So, we’ll have a solo by Juliana Olayode, music accompanied by the solemnity of violins. I suspect we’ll have another musical between Seyi Obembe and Ifeoluwa and I wonder if it could be love.
So, is his love interest Juliana or Ifeoluwa? We’ll see.
We can only pray that God completely heals our land sooner than later, and that normalcy will be totally restored. When that happens, I believe Patrick Syndrome will hit the cinemas, just like The Final Contest did when it was first released.
In Toyin Okelola’s words:
Here’s a movie that saw the pandemic before it struck the globe. I’m sure the producer @seyiobembe didn’t see it coming too. The movie was shot in November 2019 and I’m happy to be part of this project. It’s going to hit a cinema near you after the lockdown lifts.
So, fingers crossed.
Link to the trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGCCgB6FlXs
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