Plot
The film is divided into two distinct but thematically connected chapters — “Spain” and “Italy.
Chapter One: Spain
The first story follows Mofe, a middle-aged electrician and generator repairman living in a low-income neighborhood of Lagos. Mofe dreams of migrating to Spain to escape the difficulties of his daily life and to find better prospects. He works two jobs — one at a printing press and another fixing electrical equipment — saving every naira he can to fund his journey.
Mofe lives in a small apartment with his sister Precious and her two young children. While Mofe works long hours, Precious manages the household and makes ends meet through small trading. Mofe has been gathering the necessary documents for his migration, including his passport, visa applications, and reference letters, hoping to finalize his travel plans soon.
However, tragedy strikes when he returns home one evening to discover that his sister and her children have died from carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a faulty generator. Devastated, Mofe is left to handle the emotional and financial aftermath. He faces bureaucratic obstacles at every turn — from hospital officials demanding money to retrieve the bodies to his landlord threatening to evict him.
As Mofe tries to arrange their burial, he also loses his passport, which was stolen during a break-in, effectively ending his dream of emigrating. Struggling to recover from the compounded losses, Mofe attempts to find meaning and stability again. He starts a tentative relationship with Rosa, a woman he meets at the bar, but their connection is strained by the weight of their individual struggles. Mofe’s life continues in quiet perseverance as he resigns himself to the reality that leaving Nigeria may no longer be possible.
Chapter Two: Italy
The second story focuses on Rosa, a young hairdresser and bartender working multiple jobs to support herself and her teenage sister Grace. Like Mofe, Rosa dreams of migrating — in her case, to Italy. She believes that leaving Nigeria is the only way to escape poverty and ensure a better future for Grace.
Rosa rents a cramped apartment and constantly juggles financial pressures. Her boss at the salon offers to introduce her to Peter, a wealthy Lebanese businessman, who can help with her visa and travel documents — but in exchange for a personal relationship. Reluctantly, Rosa agrees to Peter’s advances, seeing it as a potential path out of her struggles.
Meanwhile, Grace becomes pregnant by Obinna, the landlord’s son. Rosa is furious, fearing that this will derail their migration plans. When Grace falls ill and is hospitalized, Rosa faces mounting medical bills and humiliation from Peter, who withdraws his promises of help.
Rosa later crosses paths again with Mofe, who offers her quiet kindness, but both are too burdened by their own pain to truly connect. Eventually, Rosa realizes that her dream of reaching Italy is slipping away. Despite her efforts — working, borrowing, and compromising — she remains trapped by circumstances beyond her control.
In the final scenes, life in Lagos continues — noisy, crowded, and indifferent. The characters’ hopes for migration fade into the background of everyday survival. Both Mofe and Rosa come to represent the countless Nigerians whose dreams of a better life abroad are thwarted by poverty, systemic failure, and personal tragedy.
Reception
The film received positive reviews from critics. Glenn Kenny of RogerEbert.com gave it 3.5 stars out of four, writing that it is "a confident, knowing, empathetic effort. While the themes here are, of course, redolent of neorealism, the filmmakers don’t make ostentatious nods to cinema past. Their voice is their own; the camera is mobile when it needs to be, but stands still much of the time, letting the excellent cast build their characters as the events of the film test their endurance. And endurance rather than desire is what the movie is finally all about." [26]
Writing in The New Yorker , novelist Teju Cole called it an "artful and luminous film" and "a search for how best to live." Comparing it to Wong Kar Wai’s In The Mood for Love, Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation , and Mati Diop’s Atlantics , he concludes: "It is a testament to Chuko Esiri’s compact and intelligent script that the film moves by its own persuasive logic, feeling neither like a catalogue of miseries nor a sentimental exercise in third-world pluck." [27]
It was listed as one of the best African films of 2022. [28]
The film maintains a "Fresh" score of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes , and an average score of 7.9, after 22 reviews by critics. [29]
