Film Mischief: Even among the independent outings in Nigerian cinema, coming across a film described as a comedic sci-fi short is rare. Titled Cause, Effect, and Maybe Consequences?, the story is an extended interaction between a man’s past, present, and future selves.
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Time displacement is a trope as old as storytelling itself. For as long as people have imagined extraordinary scenarios, stories of humans stepping outside the constraints of space and time have been told. Hollywood has also explored this idea in numerous forms; stories of characters returning to the past to correct a grave mistake or fleeing to the future to escape present sorrows abound. In Cheyi Okoaye’s film, a man’s future self has travelled to the present to deliver an important message, but he cannot remember what it is.
Sprawled on a bed, the present self says to his future counterpart, “Stop being me, sitting there with my face. It’s too weird.” Meeting your doppelgänger has to be an uncanny experience, and the film leans into that weirdness, using humour to soften the potential horror. The future self finds the present self too immature, a directionless person who has lost his lover as a result of his non-committal nature. The past self, more immature still, appears in the present and only wants to go on a sex bender. Here, the past and future function more like Freud’s Id and Superego— the Past is an expression of his basest desires, while the Future, now above those temptations, wants him to take responsibility for himself.
This short film presents an intriguing setup and, through its dialogue, touches on many areas where it could begin to say something more concrete. Yet, much like the present self, it does not quite commit to any of them.
I wondered if titling this review, ‘Cheyi Okoaye Plays with Himself,’ was a good idea. Then, at the five-minute mark, one character says, “You can literally do anything right now, but you choose to fucking hunt for vaginas,” so I guess that title is back on the table.
I first came across Cheyi Okoaye’s work a few years ago in Gasper, a short film where he plays the titular character, a psychopath with troubling delusions. Gasper unfolds through a series of intense monologues delivered directly to the audience. Three years later, Okoaye remains the sole actor, writer, and director— still, in a sense, playing with himself. At least this time, he’s experimenting with a lighter tone.
Cause, Effect, and Maybe Consequences? screened at The Annual Film Mischief 2025
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