The Woman King

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Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves

 

Warriors of the Oyo Empire are having their evening meal. Prisoners from the Dahomey and other territories to be sold to the slave trade are kept in huts and don't dare go up against these fearsome soldiers or they'll be killed and they can't run because they use horses. But, it's a quiet night and not even the animals are stirring in the tall grass. A burst of bird-flight spooks one of the younger soldiers and the others enjoy a good laugh at his expense.

 

It will be their last laugh.

 

Out of the grass, silently, rises many women, suited for battle and with battleaxes resting on their shoulders. On point is Nanisca (Viola Davis), with a look so fierce and baleful that if the warriors knew ice-water it would be running in their veins. She raises her axe and with a ululating cry storms forward with the rest of her warriors, all women. They are the Agojie, the specialist unit of women-warriors from Dahomey, who expect and demand the respect of their citizens, and who run out of the brush like a wave, axes flashing. They won't flash for very long as Oyo blood will dull them.

One may gripe about the super-hero glut of movies, even though they have abated somewhat as studios find their footing with them. But they have paved a way for people to accept the "adventure" movie as a good evening's entertainment even if not populated with people in spandex. The Woman King, directed by Gina Prince-Blythewood, owes quite a bit to that trend, seeing as it shepherded a precedent for studios to consider financing a film about woman-warriors (Wonder Woman) and African locales and story-lines (Black Panther). Those were fantasies, however. The Woman King purports to tell history.

It is 1823 and the kingdom of Dahomey, under King Ghezo (John Boyega) is approaching the time when they must pay tribute to the Oyo and its leader, General Oba Ade (Jimmy Odukoya), despite that the leader is known for raids and for interfering in Dahomey's own trade with Europeans for slaves and other resources. It is the Oyo plan to absorb Dahomey and eliminate its influence; why accept tribute when they can have it all? The raids are merely prelude for an inevitable attack, and Ghezo seeks to forestall the inevitable by accepting the Oyo demands.

But, Nanisca, leader of the Agojie warriors, knows that the Dahomey are merely being bled slowly before an inevitable take-over bid, and suggests the training of new recruits to fend off any new raids. The rescued women are brought into the Agojie training facility, as well as other women who volunteer or who are too rebellious to become slaves or wives. In that latter category is Nawi (Thuso Mbedu), who has some rough edges that need to be disciplined and "smoothed over" before she earn her place among the warriors, or risk being sold for failing.

She comes under the tutelage of the trainer Izogie (Lashana Lynch), who recognizes the girl's defiance but also potential. The film follows Nawi's training, but also her relationship with a half-Portugese/half-Dahomey trader (Jordan Bolger) who is not unsympathetic to his kingsmen, but also has to live in another world, too.

This is great adventure movie material, but the distinction is that it is told from the native's point of view, not from the colonialists'. And, despite the inclusion of that trader, there is no "outsider savior" to intermingle and "help" or even explain the situation. Which is as refreshing as it is long overdue. The basic storyline is as old as Kurosawa, but how they play it is as old as Spartacus.

There has been some yelping about history and inaccuracies (and I'm usually the first "yelper"), about how the kingdom of Dahomey was just as culpable in the slave trade (and it very much was), but The Woman King does not shy away from that fact, instead concentrating on the Agojie and their efforts to stop the influence of the Oyo Empire over their affairs. And there is the acknowledgment that the rulers of Africa were just as complicit in trading human beings as the Europeans—just less efficient and far-reaching. There have always been slaves, just the definition of civilization has changed.

That's an important statement to make. And it features in the story by actor Maria Bello and Dana Stevens' script. The slave trade has always been a sensitive subject and a more complicated one than the safe narrative (if it is allowed to be spoken about at all!) that has been agreed upon, and is part of the larger story of power and oppression than the narrative of any one race. The story of agency and a people's ability to achieve it is the ultimate story of the ascent of human-kind.

And that is a story vigorously told in The Woman King. That the story is fascinating without white-washing in the broader points is an example of just how bold the artisans making the film are. And that goes to the actors as well. Viola Davis has long been a national treasure and her performance as Nanisca is traditional in its depiction of scowling generals who fight the periphery of what is lost to achieve what is to be gained. And watching her walk in this film is one of the subtle joys I had in this movie. Lashana Lynch wins the Toshiro Mifune Award for making the most of a role that could be cliched but instead seems fresh and more than just what appears on the page—she has a habit of doing that.

 

It's a great cast in a great movie. Highly recommended.