Writer: Uyaiedu Ikpe-Etim
Director: Pamela Adie
Threatened with prosecution for hoping to distribute the film badged as Nigeria’s first lesbian drama in 2020, filmmaker Pamela Adie and screenwriter Uyaiedu Ikpe-Etim return to their subject matter with a sequel which has its world premiere at BFI Flare 2026. The soapy plot and extended running time – almost 2 hours – leaves surprisingly little time for character development but sometimes the significance of a film can far outweigh its story and structure, or even its qualities as a movie and ìfé: (The Sequel) is one of those times, a celebration of freedom of speech, of expression and the equality of love in whatever form it takes.
Former lovers ìfé (Uzoamaka Power) and Adaora (Gbubemi Ejeye) have gone their separate ways, not seeing each other for three years and forming new relationships. Adaora is married to a man wants them to have a baby while ìfé is newly engaged to her current girlfriend and excited for a new life ahead when the pair run into one another again in a bookshop. Unable to resist the chemistry that’s always been between them, a new phase begins taking them on another complicated journey to be together.
ìfé: (The Sequel) is a classic romcom in many ways and doesn’t require the audience to have seen the original, putting a whole new set of obstacles in the path of the would-be lovers following their latest meet cute. And there are plenty of those from their own feelings and self-destructive tendencies keeping them apart in the first place, the presence of two remarkably forgiving, unconvincingly saintly and supportive, homophobic parents, a pregnancy and even a priest offering conversion therapy, Adie and Ikpe-Etim do create a lot of barriers for their central couple.
Compared to other films at the festival, this may not stack up so well as a movie; its plot has a soap opera quality with big problems quickly resolved only to be followed by new dilemmas – more than once you might expect the Eastenders doof doofs to sound in your head – while the continual back and forth leaves little time to really get to know either woman beyond their sexuality and attraction to one another. They actually talk very little to one another except about their relationship so it’s not easy to form a picture of their lives, where they work, their interests and anything they might have in common. The same is true for the secondary characters who offer relatively little to the story with even a domestic abuse subplot being cast aside after one conversation.
It could have been shorter, perhaps fewer excessive twists and little more time on why love matters so much more than anything else in their lives. Yet ìfé: (The Sequel) represents something more than the reels on screen, it is a statement about freedom and inclusivity that the BFI Flare audience will wholeheartedly embrace.
BFI Flare 2026 runs from 18-29 March.
