by Adedoyin Ademola
As much as the world is advancing today, Nigeria still doesn’t fully understand Postpartum depression and its dangers to people who experience it. 1 in 7 women experiences postpartum depression, which means your friends, sisters, and wives might suffer from it. It is a condition that envelopes a mother’s mind, renders her overwhelmed, and leaves her at the mercy of her mind as she tries to love her newborn child without losing herself. The Nigerian Industry has seen comedy, thriller, horror, and action, but here comes a trailblazer, a diamond in the rough. Here comes For Maria- Ebun Pataki.
This movie is deeply emotional and would trigger some feelings you didn’t realize you had. I actually shouted at my screen while I watched it. The story is centred on the lives of Derin and Fola, focusing on Derin and how she tried to handle the transition into motherhood. Derin underwent a lot of pain when she gave birth to her child, who she and Fola named Maria. Derin suffers from postpartum depression and finds it hard to bond with her baby. This causes Derin to become withdrawn from Maria, as she finds it difficult to look Maria in the eyes or even carry her. Fola is the ever-dutiful husband who understands Derin is having a hard time with Maria, so he takes care of her and tries to make sure Derin understands that he loves her even with how withdrawn she is.
Like most situations in life, there was an opposing force in Fola and Derin’s life. In this movie, Fola’s mother plays that role. She is an old-timer who does things her way and doesn’t get along with how Gen Z handle their emotions. She gives Derin a hard time and accuses her of not caring for her child (How dare she?).
Meg Otanwa plays Derin; she portrayed the character so well at one point; I was so engrossed that I didn’t think the character she played was fictional. The pain on her face was real, her expression, the way she spoke, and the inner fears she couldn’t speak showed in every movement she made on camera. The character sync was beautiful.
Gabriel Afolayan plays Fola the husband, and he bodied the role. The role of that confused yet caring husband. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but he knew the birth took a lot from Derin and tried to make amends. The love he showed her was genuine, and he stood by Derin against his mother.
Tina Mba gave us a feel of that old generation of mothers; she believed in prayers and how they would solve everything. She was tough on Derin, who was trying to live one breath at a time. She was ignorant, just as most of us are regarding postpartum depression.
In the movie, the audience can see the stages of postpartum depression Derin experiences, from arriving home from the hospital to the naming ceremony where she sat uninterested and withdrawn from the activities and how she avoided the guests during the ceremony. Derin couldn’t stand the whole “congratulations on the baby” thing; she had no energy or motivation.
I like how the movie portrayed how Derin felt worthless and guilty and how she believed she was a bad parent when Maria refused to suckle directly from her breasts but a bottle. As a new mother, you will look forward to bonding and doing everything with your baby, especially if the baby is a girl, but Derin is withdrawn from her baby. She isn’t taking an interest in Maria and is constantly bothered by her crying.
The change in Derin’s relationship with food is also one of the notable symptoms of postpartum in the movie. Derin doesn’t want to eat food, not because she doesn’t want to, but because the condition she is going through doesn’t afford her the luxury of being able to eat. In this movie, many memorable scenes will stick with a person, but one of the scenes that keep replaying in my head is when Derin was alone at the hospital with a doctor, and Maria cried. Derin complained about Maria’s crying and how she couldn’t bond with Maria. The doctor gets Maria to stop crying, and I could feel the hurt Derin must have felt in that scene. Maria couldn’t bond with her, but she could bond with a stranger, so what could Derin be doing wrong? I felt pained as I watched that scene and couldn’t bear the pain Derin felt.
Another one of these scenes was when Derin went to a supermarket, and Maria started to cry; an older woman behind Derin told her to get Maria a herbal concoction so she would stop crying. To the older woman, Maria had diarrhoea, but in reality, Maria had to live with a mother who didn’t care for her. This scene made me realize how far off we are about people’s lives when we judge them from what we see alone.
The movie’s climax for me was when Derin finally admitted her fears to Fola; she didn’t want to have any children, she wanted four children initially, and now she has one she didn’t want. Her depression wasn’t because of her difficult birth but because she realized she didn’t want to go through the process of birthing another child.
Although this movie didn’t discuss how postpartum depression can be cured, it made me want to learn more about it. For Maria-Ebun Pataki will teach you that being a mother will take every atom of your being, and you have to prepare to give yourself. Some women don’t suffer this, congratulations to them, but to those who do, it is heartbreaking. Most of these women don’t understand what they are going through and will likely blame themselves.
I think what other people will realize from this movie is to be kind to people, and most of all, you can do all you can to help a person, and it still won’t be enough. The fault is not on either of the parties, some things don’t work out in the grand scheme of things.
I think For Maria was made for those women who go through the same, for the confused husbands and the mothers-in-law who think they have figured motherhood out. For Maria-Ebun Pataki was a sight for sore eyes, and it opened my mind to questions and lots of discussions. I want to see movies like this from Nollywood that speak about people’s pain in real-time.
