October 1

Having worked in Nigeria many years ago, not too long after the period depicted in this film, think this film is excellent. It took me back in time to a familiar place. The characters are so credible, drawing on tribal animosity and its influence on society in ways I witnessed way back when. Nigeria is a wonderful country filled with wonderful people, many of whom have their own customs and beliefs that don't resemble western ways. This film touches on that with sensitivity; the film is itself a sensitive portrayal of village life. I feel I met many of these characters, albeit after independence, but they were proudly owning any mistakes. I didn't meet one guy, though, who comes to the fore late on in the film. No spoilers. Just watch it.

This was a very character rich film. Not a single scene was wasted. You feel taken by the hand invisibly by the storyteller and shown things that seem unimportant perhaps or out of context at the time, yet slowly but surely build towards powerful scenes and an inescapable conclusion. You don't have to know any Nigerian history to get a sense of the buzz in the air about the country's independence which was being launched at the time this provincial crime investigation takes place. It's also worth noting that the investigation does not rely on common tropes such as what a genius the investigator but rather on an organic navigation through unfamiliar territory and peculiar characters interacting in a fluid, at times comical at times dangerous framework.

October 1, kudos to Babalola the script writer, had all elements of a detective story woven around when Nigeria jostled for her independence from the British crown who had subjugated her for years, exploiting her resources to build her commonwealth.

Back to October 1: there was a perfect crime (s), wrongly accused suspects, a believable and intelligent detective and good red herrings that smelled so good the best detective from the future would be derailed.

BUT...

The culprit's motive for murdering his victim's were far fetched. Chrissakes, what was he (the writer) thinking?

A child, with others, was sexually abused by a Roman Catholic priest, he matures into an adult, has a good life (?) and he returns to his native land to start kiling young women... A plausible thing would have been that he takes out his revenge on Roman Catholic priests, or even luring innocent men into his trap and kills them. Not women. But it's the script writer's story, he decides everything in the creation of his.

Howbeit, October 1 was okay.

After having this in My List on Netflix for probably a year, I finally decided to watch it, being a skeptic of all films made in Nigerian. I hate Nollywood and their repetitive nonsense films about love, in laws and general foolishness about money. And don't get me started with the bad camera work and sound/sound effects. Enter October 1st, the films is simply everything I wanted plus more. A good detective film, a love story without too much emphasis on the love, a country's last journey through independence from the white man and the very good play on the stereotype of the different tribes that makes up the Fedral Republic of Nigeria. I spent the first 10 years of my life there and still have and love the vivid memory's however often forget, lest I am reminded by films like this. Culture, language, food, palm wine and of course the British. The film was well acted, very well directed, you knew who the perpetrator is from the get go, but due to everything that made up the rest of the film, I didn't care that it took a while to get to him. It also had plenty of Yoruba spoken in it which is my first language, so this is one I will be recommending to all my fellow Nigerians. I will be looking out for more work by Kunle Afolayan. Well done!!!

I am not Nigerian this lifetime, but I felt empowered by this INCREDIBLE 'Tour de force' eruption, if u will, of the nefarious exposure of British colonialism, pedophile plagued Roman Catholic Church, insane various tribal prejudices exposed galore & a truly decent Muslim Nigerian from the north detective tasked to quickly make sense of several horrible rapes & murders of tribal virgins in a southern small town - that began 6 weeks before October 1st, 1960 - the day of Nigeria's independence from the British.

Nollywood truly has a political/religious/tribal gem here for those who seek to broaden their perceptions of the whys of the major ills of the world & in this case a small community in Nigeria - r so pervasive today.

Soul comes to this physical reality for experiences & this film delivers a ton of them❤