By the time Moses Inwang’s Blood Vessel’s first act draws near its close, the gnawing, worrying feeling that this might be a bad, melodramatic movie begins to creep in on you. The emotional outbursts from Oyin (Adaobi Dibor), though justified, have been unearned narratively. The energetic opening sequence is abrupt and chaotic. Something undone about the first act makes it feel like it should be slower and faster simultaneously. But as the first act closes, an interesting thing happens: the story redeems itself.

Blood Vessel pays homage to the illegal migrants who take the most dangerous routes to leave their home countries for greener pastures abroad. As is natural, every illegal migrant has their story, and it is even more so here in Blood Vessel, where each dividend pair of the six travelling characters have different reasons for migrating. Abbey (David Ezekiel) and Oyin (Dibor Adaobi) are eloping from Oyin’s vindictive father, Ebiye (Bimbo Manuel). Tekena (Sylvester Ekanem) and Olotu (Obinna Christian Okenwa) are leaving for greener pastures. Boma (Jidekene Achufusi) and Degbe (Levi Chikere) are delinquents trying to outrun the law. Without a doubt, this is a narratively interesting group. The problem is that we find out what makes them interesting a little late in the film. 

Take Abbey and Oyin, for example. Early in the film, we know that Abbey has impregnated Oyin, to her father’s violent disagreement. And to prevent him from aborting the child, they have run away from home. Later in the second act, Oyin reveals through a number of flashbacks that she is a tribute child to a river goddess, and that she mustn’t be with a man. It clarifies so much so late because that revelation adds dynamic to Ebiye and his actions early in the first act and justifies some of the heinous things he did. It adds dynamism to Oyin too. It changes her from a naive girl bent on ruining her life to an opinionated character who wants to experience life outside the dictates of her family’s mysticism. That profundity of character is lacking because of when the backstory is revealed. It is material for the first act wrongly delayed until the second for dramatic effect. 

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Abbey himself is a character not properly fleshed out. Same with the brothers Tekena and Olotu. What is this surprise sibling rivalry that has weighed down their relationship so? Why am I finding out just when it will pay off and not much earlier when it would have fermented and mattered later? And while love can be a great motivator, why is Abbey so singularly devoted to Oyin? There are signs that Abbey is a loyal, upright character, especially with his final actions in the film, but who is he, and what about Oyin makes her the love of his life? The two freedom fighters, Degbe and Boma, are idealistic men pretending to be powerful. Their ideals crack through, especially with Boma. But they are not honoured with backstory, and it affects the plot. How would their characters, properly fleshed out, relate to the claustrophobia of being trapped in that vessel with a vindictive antagonist? This brings us to our big bad guy, Igor (Alex Cyr Budin).

Igor is a bag of stereotypes. Imagine the average Hollywood Russian villain. He probably rolls his ‘r’s violently, has six packs, goes near shirtless, wields a large knife, and gives a small anecdote about fighting/skinning animals with his bare hands; yeah, that’s our Igor who sails us to a gung-ho ending. We still don’t know why Igor struck before his sister died. Did he truly believe they were all spies? And if so, why didn’t he kill them all at once? Questions. Questions. 

There is something exhausting about staying with a film that constantly falls short of what it could be. The film is a hattrick of firsts. With Blood Vessel, Play Network diversifies from retouching classics. The director, Moses Inwang, also makes a strong thematic change in his long filmography. It is also the first major project for some of the acts. But I think Blood Vessel does serve some more purpose. It reminds us of the suffering people who embark on such journeys endure. And the emotional arc Abbey arrives at rounds off Oyin’s ramblings well enough. 

Despite narrative limitations, David Ezekiel carries that third act properly. If given meat to bite into, Adaobi Dibor might have had more performance room outside the tears and lamentations. Everyone else passes by comfortably, although one feels the brothers would have done better with a stronger narrative structure. And while, for whatever reason, there is only one sad, long tune running throughout the film, we have to commend some of the immaculate lighting and compositions the film has. If you can forgive the first act, then you might like Blood Vessel.

Blood Vessel premiered on December 8, 2023, on Netflix.

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Side Musings

• Nobody gets up on their two feet after they’ve been shot in the knee, Igor. But you are a Russian badass, so you are exempted.
• They should have leaned more towards practical effects than CGI. The bad CGI limited them.
• Why was there a voice-over narration at the start of the film again?
• That Boma character that the Russian skinned, and we find out later that his father is a pastor. Imagine if they’d given us that information early. Imagine they told us he is a freedom fighter because his father once said to love your neighbor as yourself. Or because he disagreed with his father saying turn your left cheek after your right has been slapped. But all his heroic acts fall into the black hole of a badly arranged first act.
• You don’t make that revelation about Oyin in the second act because revealing it in the first act gives you room to pursue drama in the second act and relieves you of backstory baggage in the second half. An alternative revelation point would have been the third act, just after Abbey reveals to Ebiye that Oyin is dead. Letting us know why he didn’t want Oyin with him at that point packs a maximum emotional wallop that is lost with the way it currently stands.
• The worrying thing is that the writers didn’t realise that Mr. Pere (Francis Duru) would have made for a much better villain. What if Mr. P sold them off one after the other to organ harvesters?