The Woman King | Dir: Gina Prince-Bythewood | ★ ★ ★ ★
Director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s first film Love and Basketball (2000) was based on her experiences growing up and gave a generation of Black women a chance to see themselves as the lead of a romantic comedy. The Secret Life of Bees (2008) saw the main character seeking guidance in a female community and looking for a connection to a mother figure. With The Old Guard (2020), she made history as the first Black woman to direct a major comic book hero.
Combine the themes of these three films and there is the blueprint for The Woman King, an epic loosely based on the true story of the Agojie, the all-female unit of warriors who protected the African Kingdom of Dahomey in the 1800s. Led by General Nanisca (Viola Davis), new recruits are being trained as the warriors prepare to take on a neighbouring war-mongering Oyo tribe as well as the slave traders who have landed on their nearby shores.
One of the recruits learning to become a warrior is nineteen year-old Nawi (ThusoMbedu) who was handed over by her father after violently rejecting an arranged marriage to a much older man. The character is named after the actual Nawi who is said to have been the last surviving Agojie, claiming to have fought the French in 1892 and dying in 1979, aged over 100 years.
There has been quite a lot of publicity about the five hour a day training regime Davis underwent the for three months before the production to become the fierce warrior – including an hour of running, two hours of martial arts, and two hours of strength training each day.
Written, directed, shot and edited by an ensemble of women, this rousing film is a crowd-pleaser that features a cast of strong Black women who run, fight and dance to the rhythms of Africa. Accompanied by the men of their tribe, they do battle with larger armies who have armour, horses and guns. Along the way, they are also able to confront their own demons.
Lezly Herbert
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