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Directed by Biodun Stephen and starring Iyabo Ojo as the titular lead, Labake Olododo positions itself as an epic tale of war, vengeance and justice. After opening with a few confusing scenes, the film lurches into a battlefield where booming gunfire, blades slicing through flesh, splattered blood, and falling bodies set the mood. In the middle of the bloodbath is Labake (Iyabo Ojo), an equestrian warrior wielding twin axes and a glare that could crack the sky. But beneath the surface of war cries, we find a distorted narrative struggling to stay true to itself.
The titular Labake Olododo is introduced as a virtuous protector—chaste, chosen, and righteous. But her actions reveal a bitter warlord bent on revenge, destabilizing the economy of a neighbouring village, Olugbon, to avenge her father’s death. Her motivations are flimsy—they’re self-serving, in a way that makes her less of a heroine and more of a hypocrite. Despite the trailer promising a gritty war epic steeped in justice and courage, Labake Olododo quickly reveals itself to be a muddled tale of unrealistic romance, retribution gone wrong, and a string of undercooked themes.
Due to its jumbled plots and themes, the movie can’t quite decide what it wants to be. The marketed war drama shifts rapidly into comedy, romantic melodrama, and moral lecture, typical of Yoruba cinema. What should be a tight, compelling hero’s journey is reduced to a collection of chaotic scenes—some laughable, others emotionally inert. Overstretched scenes include the opening war sequence, meant to establish Labake’s legend, which is disappointingly hollow.
Labake Olododo mistakes clutter for complexity in what is filled with convoluted, undeveloped scenes and characters. Character arcs start and vanish just as they begin. Subplots are sketched and abandoned. This isn’t helped by the presence of Broda Shaggi, Cute Abiola, and Kamo as comic relief who dilute the gravity of war, rape, and communal collapse. These skitmakers, as youth leaders and activists, instead of being reshaped into voices of reasoning and bravery, are left to play their usual comic selves. Their moments of clownish acts weaken the emotional weight those scenes should carry. By the time the story circles back to its central conflict, its emotional impact has already bled out.
Director Biodun Stephen, more known for simple family dramas set within confined spaces, steps into a new challenge with Labake Olododo, her first venture into a full-fledged epic film. Here, she struggles to manage the large-scale battle scenes and the intense confrontations.
However, her directorial voice is clearer when the film shifts into love and romance. Labake’s chance encounter with the charming Jaiyeoba (Tayo Faniran) during a visit to the village school is delightful. Captivated by Jaiyeoba’s boldness and sweet talk, Labake begins to shed her warrior instincts in an attempt to embrace a more refined lifestyle. The exploration of their affair, with fierce interference from Labake’s overprotective grandma, makes Stephen’s strengths come to life.
In this full-throttle era of epic Yoruba language projects, Labake Olododo doesn’t break new ground. Nor does it offer a thrilling, memorable experience for the audience. Rather, it leans heavily on the familiar long but empty incantations, strange makeup, exaggerated beards, and half-baked storylines. It once again tries to rely on style and leaves us with no real substance—mysticism for mysticism’s sake, without depth or meaning.
The movie is meant to be about a powerful female warlord leading a war and serving as a political figure. That alone is rare and exciting in a genre recently dominated by male characters. Labake could have been a bold and fresh take on what it means to be a woman in a violent world. But the film doesn’t give her enough. In many scenes, Labake is pushed to the side and doesn’t take charge as the title suggests. Instead, characters like Adigun, her violent second-in-command, get more attention. Even Jaiyeoba, her love interest, has a more emotional presence in some key scenes.
There’s an opportunity here that the film misses: to explore how women forge power and identity in violent, patriarchal worlds and how myths can either liberate or entrap them. By failing to centre Labake’s voice and letting others dictate the pace and depth of her journey, the film ultimately writes around her rather than about her. In doing so, it dims the light of a character who could have been both revolutionary and unforgettable.
Labake Olododo premiered in cinemas March 28
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Side Musings
- The movie is a mismatch of Iyabo Ojo’s real-life persona and her just and unjust fights for injustice.
- A woman beside me at the cinema whispered to me during Labake’s first battle scene: “What are they even fighting for, sef?” Her instincts were spot on. The film never answers this. In a school scene, she asked, “What are they trying to achieve with this school setting?” Nothing, my sister, I wish I had answered. Halfway into the movie, she whispered again, “Are you understanding the story?” I was trying to understand, even if the movie doesn’t want to be understood.
- Labake wearing orthodontic braces in a traditional Yoruba epic is… shocking, to say the least.
- The romance subplot is laughably implausible. No warlord in a traditional Yoruba setting is casually falling for a schoolteacher without serious narrative groundwork.
- The beards in these movies keep getting stranger, the incantations longer, but somehow, the stories keep getting thinner.
- Although the film doesn’t clearly define its era, portraying a traditional Yoruba monarch engaging in casual English dialogue with his son undermines the historical credibility of the setting.
- And how do we classify the type of Yoruba Aremo (Olumide Oworu), the prince of Olugbon, speaks?
