According
to the World Health Organization (WHO), Nigeria is now Ebola-free, but don’t
take their word for it. A Nollywood crew filmed the story of the 2014 outbreak
on location in the very same hospital and isolation wards involved—and lived to
tell the tale on the festival circuit. The ripped-from-the-headlines story of
the dedicated medical team that contained the Ebola threat is dramatized in
Steve Gukas’s English language 93 Days (trailer here), which screens as
part of the Spotlight on Nigeria at the 2016 African Diaspora International Film Festival in New York.
In
August of 2014, Nigeria was still untouched by Ebola, but the virus was very
definitely present in West Africa—particularly Liberia, where an estimated fifty
(five-zero) doctors cared for a population of over four million. That is where
grumpy business traveler Patrick Sawyer flew in from. He looked a bit peaked on
the flight and practically imploded once he reached the hospital, but he
refused to cooperate with efforts to diagnose his malady. Recognizing the tell-tale
signs, Dr. Ameyo Adadevoh imposes quarantine protocols, at least as best she
can in the woefully under-prepared First Consultants. Honestly, the up-scale hospital
would be a perfectly fine place to get treatment for a broken leg, but they
just didn’t have the infectious disease facilities.
Of
course, the tests eventually confirm the Ebola diagnosis, but by that time,
several doctors and RNs are already symptomatic. They will be whisked away to a
makeshift isolation ward in Yaba, where they will be treated by Dr. David
Brett-Major, an American WHO specialist. Eventually, Dr. Adadevoh will also
check herself into Yaba, after a short period of denial.
Unlike
most outbreak thrillers, 93 Days is
more about responsibility than panic and terror. Essentially, it portrays a
group of doctors who get a dose of their own medicine and in some cases, heal themselves.
However, it is a bit controversial in Liberia, with most of the criticism
focused on the casting of a Nigerian actor as the Liberian Sawyer, but one
cannot help suspecting the film stirs deeper national resentments.
The
portrayal of the doctors’ professionalism and heroism is refreshing, but Gukas
and editor Antonio Rui Ribeiro could have easily pruned some of the talky
slack. Still, the polish of Gukas’s production stands head-and-shoulders above
what many viewers might expect from Nollywood. This looks like a real movie
with a respectable budget. It even features two legit Hollywood actors.
Tim
Reid essentially phones in his brief appearance as a DC health official, who
duly explains why a raging outbreak in Lagos would be less than optimal. On the
other hand, Danny Glover is in it for the long haul as the sage-like hospital director,
Dr. Benjamin Ohiaeri. There are probably more Evangelical Christian prayers in 93 Days than all of Glover’s previous
films combined, but he still does his thing, radiating grizzled greybeard
dignity.
Somkele
Idhalama is also quite forceful as Dr. Ada Igonoh, the sequestered infected staffer
who would probably be voted most likely to survive. Yet, probably the biggest
surprise is the charismatic and humane performance of British Alastair
Mackenzie as the American Dr. Brett-Major.