Review: Citation

Temi Otedola in Citation

Citation comes from Nigeria as a Netflix original. It’s about sexual harassment and sex for grades in universities. Based on real events about one young woman courageous enough to speak out, it’s #TimesUp Nigerian style.

Temi Otedola in Citation

Citation stars first time actress Temi Otedola as Moremi. She’s working on a graduate degree at a university in Nigeria. She’s brilliant. She’s fluent in several languages and is majoring in political science.

She meets and dates a medical student named Koyejo (Gabriel Afolayan) and befriends classmates Kwesi (Adjetey Anang) and Gloria (Ini Edo). It was interesting to see the way classes were conducted. The university setting in Ife, Nigeria was inspiring in its beauty.

Jimmy Jean-Louis in Citation

One of her teachers is Prof. Lucien N’Dyare (Jimmy Jean-Louis). He shows a great interest in her. They become close, but it isn’t sexual. Then he attempts to rape her.

Moremi reports Prof. N’Dyare and the university senate conducts an investigation. The case receives a lot of publicity and notoriety. As the case went on, more and more women showed up in support of Moremi.

Moremi was assigned an attorney who could be with her during the senate hearing. The lawyer could not speak during the proceedings but could whisper advice in Moremi’s ear. This university panel had the power to do things like expel students or fire teachers. If they found the Professor guilty, they could turn his case over to the police for prosecution.

Citation is 2 1/2 hours long. An hour could have easily been cut and the drama and tension of the sexual harassment case would have been intact. Since the situation was a he said, she said type defense, Moremi did a little investigating on her own and found some interesting things about the Professor.

Temi Otedola said this about the film on Twitter.

The lengthy film time spun into a virtual tour of the art and scenery of Nigeria, Senegal, and Cape Verde. The colors and the patterns in the clothing received careful attention. Cultural events like concerts garnered very long looks from the camera. It was partly high stakes drama, partly tourist brochure.

The truly polyglot African characters spoke English, Wolof, French, Yoruba, and Portuguese.

Citaton poster art

Here is the trailer.

What do you think? Does it look good?

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