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Many adults can
imagine the horrible lifestyle of a Lagos street kid, but would hardly
want to live it. The impact of this hits home harder after you‘ve seen
Michelle Bello’s ‘Small Boy,’ a film about 10-year-old Sunny Agaga who
finds himself struggling to survive on the Lagos streets.

Set in a Lagos
slum, ‘Small Boy’ is, however, not another ‘Slumdog Millonaire’ yarn.
Sunny’s journey begins after a dispute between his mother, Aina (Najite
Dede) and father Sunmi (Akin Lewis). It is the final act of spousal
abuse that opens his mother’s eyes to the need to flee for her life. At
their borrowed lodgings, Aina transfers her aggression to young Sunny
(AMAA-winning child actor, Richard Chukwuma) and accuses him of theft.
He runs endlessly into the night. So begins life on the streets.

What ensues is a
depiction of the lad’s picaresque existence, echoing scenes from ‘Les
Miserables’, ‘August Rush’ and ‘Oliver Twist’.

Sunny makes friends
with Deola, played by Agbolade Gbolahan, who nearly steals the show
from Chukwuma. Deola and his gang of urchins – one of whom is named
Dragon – all fall within Sunny’s age-range and work under the
supervision of the Fagin-like Oyi, played by Toyin Oshinaike.

Nobert Young in a
cameo role as the drug peddling ‘Presido’ unwittingly sets Sunny on the
journey to finding himself. Some might be surprised to find out the
kind of job these boys do when they are on the run. For the
uninitiated, it is at this point that you might feel concerned that
‘Small Boy’ is actually based on a true story.

The film does not
go into the politics of this, but it becomes obvious that society is
not handling the problem of juvenile delinquency effectively.
Especially when elected lawmakers break all laws, including those that
should protect children.

‘Small Boy,’
however succeeds at not being preachy or excessively didactic. The
script by Makinde Adeniran, who also handled the casting, is an
original in the realm of Nollywood scriptwriting. Using the power of
imagery and few words, Michelle Bello’s style and approach to directing
is forward-looking in terms of storytelling. Acquiring the viewer’s
eye, Bello showed more than she told.

A carving on the
wall in the Agaga household ironically reads “One love keeps us
together” when that is not the case in the family. As Sunny’s mother
and brother embark on a frantic search for him, a road sign points out
‘Murtala Mohammed Way’ and ‘Herbert Macaulay Way.’ Sunny could have
gone anywhere in a million and one places. Their search has only just
begun.

Note: there’s
hardly any romance when you consider many characters in this film are
brutes of some sort. But what little romance there is, is key to the
unfolding of ‘Small Boy’s plot; a very effective type of cause and
effect.

Aiding imagination

It is however
unfortunate that we neither get to see Sunmi again nor does a love
affair bloom between Aina and Ade (played by Wale Macaulay also in a
cameo role). Maybe it works better that we get to imagine.

Also aiding
imagination was the use of sound. Like all good film scores should, the
‘Small Boy’ score heralded the ominous and the joyous, pre-empting the
audience’s emotions and reactions.

Thankfully, the
music in this film is not distractive. The music by Robb Williamson and
Justin Horsford is a lesson in film music for Nollywood practitioners
who are usually content with slamming hits straight off the charts into
their hastily-done movies.

Through Bello’s
deft use of almost every angle available to a director, we see Sunny’s
sorry sojourn side by side his mother’s torment at losing him. This is
not the repetitive, melodramatic dross served up in Nollywood. It’s not
all serious, heavy stuff though. A few comic spots light up our faces
especially when the young ones make good their threat to ‘show’ a man
for parking his rickety car at their meeting point.

Getting the best of
child actors has never been easy, especially in a film studded with
older stars. But the young ones get a grip of the screen minutes into
this work and the viewer is the happier for it because these kids
really can act. If all we see of Sunny is the wacky goal-scoring
celebration he does at the start of the movie, that’s enough proof.

‘Small Boy’ has
gone on to make its mark in Nigeria and beyond, winning two AMAA awards
in 2009, including one for Best Art Direction; and garnering
nominations at the 2008 American Black Film Festival.

Anyone who sees
‘Small Boy’ – a gripping tale of child abuse – is likely to end up
taking a new look at all those other Sunny-like small boys who roam the
streets, especially in Lagos: they might not just be beggars or
windscreen cleaners. When ‘Small Boy’ comes to town you don’t want to
miss it.

‘Small Boy’ premieres at the Silverbird Cinemas, Lagos, on May 27.