Film: After 30
Cast: Jibola Abiodun, Damilola Adegbite, Diipo Adeusi
Director: Omorinsojo Spaine
Rating: 2/5
Runtime: 111 min

This sequel to ‘Before 30’ tells us how four Nigerian women, over 30, balance careers, growth, and relationships while navigating love, friendship, and societal pressure. Their advanced age though doesn’t guarantee a stronger sense of purpose while challenging norms in a world that often defines women by status. Here the typical female friendship trope becomes the bulwark for a showcase of women as complex allies.

8 years have passed since the events of ‘Before 30’ and Temi’s voiceover makes us aware of what the four friends, Temilola Coker (Damilola Adegbite), Aisha (Meg Otanwa), Nkem (Beverly Naya), and Ama (Anee Icha), have been up to in the interim. The spirited and ambitious quartet living in Lagos a city brimming with love and lust, are back to being at the crossroads.  

Temi, well into her 30s, is now in love with Kunle (Samuel As’ah), then an ill-timed encounter with Ayo (OC Ukeje), her old flame, a few weeks before the marriage puts her in a quandry. Ama has a chance at love but the taboo nature of it scares her. Aisha is so stuck up in Nkem’s business of wanting a baby of her own that she forgets she’s still a part of the world filled with strictures and conventions. They are all older but they don’t appear to have gotten wiser, and things are falling apart instead of finally falling into place.