In one of the U.K's busiest cities, dawn breaks to two lovers waking up in each other's arms. However, they are soon faced with a situation that questions their resolve and stretches their romance to its limits.
What do you do when the laws of the land threaten to take your joy away? That's the question which Nigerian-British filmmaker Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor, producer of the critically-acclaimed British crime drama Blue Story (2019) and romantic drama Boxing Day (2021), attempts to answer with her short drama For Love, her second directorial effort after the 2016 web drama series Boxx. Produced in 2021 by London-based production company Quiddity Films, the film stars Nigerian-British actors Marcy Dolapo Oni (Diary of a Lagos Girl, Desperate Housewives Africa), Ann Akinjirin (Beforeigners, Moon Kinight), Damola Adelaja (Berlin Station, Murder in Provence) and Dianna Yekinni (Murder Island, When Love Happens Again).



Nkechi (Oni) works as a cleaner at a London establishment, taking on grueling day shifts. She lives with her lover Martha (Akinjirin) in a shared apartment with Tolu (Adelaja) and Dolapo (Yekinni). There is just one "small" problem: of the four occupants, Nkechi is the only undocumented immigrant, and this means that she gets the jitters whenever employees of the Home Office come calling.

One afternoon, some immigration officers show up at the apartment for a "random routine check", forcing Nkechi to hide. When they leave, she expresses her desire to head back home to Nigeria, citing frustration with having to constantly look over her shoulders. Martha is having none of that, but she understands the gravity of the situation: if her partner is caught and upon questioning is unable to show relevant paperwork, she would be deported. There's a lot at stake, not just for Nkechi's residential status, but for their relationship, and drastic measures have to be taken.

With a runtime of 12 minutes, Gharoro-Akpojotor's film explores the nuances of immigration, the meaning of home, and the sacrifices that humans make for the sake of love. We have seen this before, where romantic passion trumps legal technicalities and damning the law is a small price to pay to get the chance at one more kiss from a lover's lips.

Beyond diplomatic status and abdominal butterflies, two germane subthemes particularly stand out in the unfolding of this film: the surge in migration by Nigerians in search of a better life, and the perils faced by queer people in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa. With respect of the first, Nigeria is plagued by insecurity, hyper-inflation and high rates of unemployment, giving many of its citizens the impetus to seek refuge in other climes by any means possible: there is a reason people wind up dead in deserts and seas while trying to cross into Europe. With respect to the second, Nigeria's laws are unkind to the LGBTQ community: a same-sex marriage currently attracts a 14-year imprisonment term, and many queer Nigerians have to live in the shadows for fear of violence. Putting these realities in perspective is what makes Nkechi's dilemma more precarious: her stay in the U.K is one burst door or one flashlight away from being over, but she can't head back home either because she can't even love freely over there.
Nkechi and Martha stand between a rock and a hard place, and this is competently portrayed by Oni and Akinjirin in the scenes where they argue about the next line of action to take; the despair in Oni's eyes and the terror on Akinjirin's face are nicely captured in closeup and extreme closeup shots taken by Nanu Segal, the film's Director of Photography. The final scene makes for some emotive cinematography, too.

To Gharoro-Akpojotor's credit, the dialogue is unforced, and even with a short runtime, there is a story that is strong enough to work with. The actors put in convincing performances too, even if Yekinni's Nigerian accent borders on the hilarious. For Love is a film that is easy to connect with, anchored by topics that interrogate the realities of sexual minorities in two continents. Thus is the reality of an undocumented queer Nigerian: unwanted at one end, and insecure at the other.

Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor's For Love was nominated for Best Short Narrative at the 2022 Blackstar Film Festival (3-7/08/2022).

Jerry Chiemeke