MAGPALE, LADY ERBIE D. PROF.

CHRISTIAN TU
BSN1A 10-21-21
MOVIE REVIEW (93 DAYS)
"93 Days" is a film that was released in 2016. Early in 2014, health professionals

in Guinea noticed instances of the Ebola Virus. The virus had a ninety percent case

fatality rate in the event of an epidemic. The World Health Organization declared an

international health emergency six months after the first cases were detected. Panic,

xenophobia, and racism spread with the infection over several months. Old notions

about Africa's backwardness pervaded private and public discourse. Then, when the

virus spread from Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea to Nigeria, a new chapter in the

tale began.

"93 Days," a film by Steve Gukas, depicts the experience of Ebola's containment

in Nigeria. The movie, while melodramatic at times, provides some insight into the lives

of the healthcare professionals who helped control the illness, including the four who

died as a result of it. Dr. Stella Ameyo Adadevoh, Dr. Ada Igonoh, and Dr. Benjamin

Ohiaeri are the main characters in the film. They worked at First Consultants Medical

Centre, where the index patient was admitted after getting unwell on his journey from

Liberia. The main characters' humanity is centered on their relationships; they are

currently pregnant or mothers, husbands or fathers. There's just as much at stake in

their personal lives as there is in the lives of the twenty-one million Lagosians they're

tasked with safeguarding.

The film stars Bimbo Akintola as Dr. Adadevoh, the physician who is credited

with initially expressing concerns about the index patient and insisting on his

confinement when his diagnosis was verified. Danny Glover, an American actor, also

appears in the film. Glover said in a post-film Q&A at the Chicago International Film

Festival that he was initially only granted a cameo role in the film, but after reading the
MAGPALE, LADY ERBIE D. PROF. CHRISTIAN TU
BSN1A 10-21-21
MOVIE REVIEW (93 DAYS)
screenplay, he begged for a larger role. As a result, Dr. Ohiaeri, the founder of First

Consultants, was cast. The directors appear to have been inspired by Ohiaeri's remark

in the last scene of "93 Days." "We accomplished this," Glover's character says at a

memorial ceremony for those who died fighting the infection. We were able to put an

end to it." This, along with the film's devotion to portraying Lagos' upper-class lifestyle,

attempts to convey a single message. It's a message of optimism that's meant to reach

beyond the characters and out to the audience, implying that Lagos, Nigeria, and Africa

don't have to be constrained by the same old haphazard and unfinished narrative.