A Critical Film Review of the Narrative Techniques in Ije – The Journey

Abstract

In order to debunk the previously held view in some quarters that African films are not up to "the standard", an attempt is made in this paper to identify and use the established principles of narrative construction in analysing the film lje - the Journey, a Nigerian film of Igbo extraction. In carrying out this mission, the reviewers use formalism and related narrative theories in dissecting both the story and the structural techniques featured in this movie. In other words, basic principles of narrative construction are deployed to decode the story in this narrative and come up with analytical facts in determining whether or not the structural set up of this African/Nigerian film is in line with the established standard of narrative construction.

At the end of this critical evaluation, the reviewers are able to showcase the effective deployment of the principle of the story and plot, creative use of opening and closing, causality, time and space, the dramatic invocation and manipulation of the flow of story information as revealed in the film range of story information and the depth of story information. Consequently, from their findings, the reviewers are able to prove the fact that some Nigerian films are up to any given international standard in terms of narrative structure.