By Melody Stewart
Intro: The Woman King Review
Where to Stream It? Hits Netflix on February 16th
Directed by: Gina Prince-Bythewood
Screenplay by: Dana Stevens
Starring: Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim, John Boyega
The Woman King will go down in history as being one of the best films ever made. I’ve made my prediction and I’ll stand by it come rain or shine because I haven’t been this moved by every aspect of filmmaking in a decade.
Viola Davis stars as Nanisca in this unforgettable film. She’s in good company with a cast of characters who live up to her standards as an actress. Thuso Mbedu plays Nawi, the new and rebellious recruit in the all-female army, and Lashana Lynch plays Davis’ right-hand woman, Izogie. Davis makes room for them in her story and they shine.
The Epic Story
I had forgotten what epic filmmaking looked like. And this is the very definition of epic. The story about a woman warrior who rises through the ranks of an all-female army to become its leader fascinated me on its own.
But add to that the story of slavery in Africa in the 18th century, warring tribes competing for the European slave trade, and European aggression toward Africa in the form of colonialism, and you’ve got a story on a global scale.
What’s more, the story incorporates the coming-of-age of a young female warrior (Thuso Mbedu) and how she is befriended by the general’s right-hand woman (Lashana Lynch) in an effort to mentor someone with so much potential and keep her from doing something too stupid, which she does on a regular basis.
But this story spans time as well when we’re transported to Nanisca’s (Viola Davis) past and her own imprisonment by a competing tribe. The violence she endured changes her forever and motivates her to become a better warrior, unhindered by her emotions. But this kind of denial has a price as everything does, and the price is a part of her soul, the part that never lived as a mother, or a partner.
Many Kinds of Love
The young Nawi makes her own sacrifices when it comes to love. She meets a slave trader with a conscience who comes to West Africa with one of the villains of the story, Santo Ferreira (played by Hero Fiennes Tiffin). Malik (played by Jordan Bolger) whose mother was from Dahomey falls for Nawi and wants her to come back to Brazil with him. And so she must decide her path. At the end of a battle against the Oyo Empire, Malik must decide his own path — whose side he’s actually on, and he does.
The warrior women of Dahomey love each other as sisters with a kind of fervor that binds their loyalty to each other. We see it between Nawi and Izogie who fight alongside each other, who give each other strength when captured, and remain steadfast by each other in battle until the end.
We see it between Nanisca (Davis) and Nawi (Mbedu) with the kind of depth only realized at the end of the film in the form of reconciliation. It turns out that love is an unbreakable bond.
For these qualities and more, the film matures into the story of not just one woman or one warrior, but a people and the stand they made that changed history for the better.
