-Brian Mendonca
The Widow (2019) on Amazon Prime is a brutal web series about life in the Congo. From the opening shots of the precocious young girl Adidje (Shalom Nyandiko) cradling a sub-machine gun almost as big as her, the sitcom has you glued to the edge of your seat. There are so many themes in The Widow. But for me it is about the rehabilitation of Adidje. Amid the violence, and across continents, two lonely people discover they need each other.
The poster of the series grabbed me with its pic of a plane superimposed on the grainy lettering of the title. Sankuru flight 19 goes down in the jungle, but its secrets surface later.
Ariel (Olafur Olafsson) puts up a good performance, but in the closing scenes he seems to lose the intensity he displayed in his chemistry with Beatrix (Louise Brealey) who is also blind.
What keeps the pace is the dramatic shifts to locales as disparate as Wales - where Georgia, the widow, played by Kate Beckinsale, has a retreat to retire; the Congo where all the action is; Rwanda where Will is holed up; and Rotterdam, where Ariel and Beatrix meet at a hospital to regain their eyesight.
The music by Dominik Scherrer is cerebral. In the 'Behind the Scenes' video of the making of the tracks at Angel Studios, London, one realizes the effort that Dominik went to to get the sound right. 'I wanted to keep the DNA of that continent [Africa] in the music,' he says.*
The performances are even, except for Will Mason (Mathew Le Nevez) the truant husband who is unconvincing till the last. Ironically, those who have smaller roles are more compelling, like the wife of Emmanuel (Jacky Ido) who is blown up in the car in an attack meant for Georgia. Describing the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) as having a government which has gone bust she says, 'You can't fill water in a bucket with a hole.' However she does join the rally to oust General Azikiwi (Babs Olusanmokun). 'You need to keep filling the bucket,' she says simply offering a lesson in courage against the system.
The series is all of eight episodes. So all the loose ends need to be tied up before that. Pieter Bello (Bart Fouche) - the man in charge of the cobalt mines - gives a compelling performance. However one cannot help smiling when his loud ringtone is the cause of his death. This is a rare tragi-comic moment well handled by the directors Sam Donavan and Olly Blackburn.
At the end of the serial, Georgia is left clutching at straws. She has found Will but it ends up as a cul-de-sac. Love withers on account of their losing their 3-month old baby Violet in her sleep.
The use of Swahili in the dialogue makes the scenes realistic in the scenes shot in the DRC. The use of French as well make the colonial connection more authentic.
General Abikewi is finally haunted by the demons of those he allowed to perish. This ploy seems stretched as a man as ruthless as him would not be having any qualms of morality.
As web serials usually do, one begins to live the life of the characters vicariously. One empathizes with the widow who is hell-bent to discover the truth about her husband. Her travel to Kinshasa, the capital of Congo, is fraught with peril but she does it.
We are left asking questions like, was it fair of Will to do what he did? How does Gloria comes to terms with this? And finally, is Gloria really a widow?
Going back and forth in time does get confusing but it adds to the narrative depth. Writers Harry and Jack Williams, have given us a tract for the times. From an international cast to a global romp, it edifies the viewer to sympathize with characters who are trapped but can transcend their realities to find a seeming closure.
At one level the series shows how people behave when they are up against a system. Like Beatrix they do not want to be involved. But the abiding image for some will remain of children in the war zone.
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Pic of Adidje in The Widow; courtesy charlesbest(dot)co(dot)uk. *http://www.duboisrecords.com/project/the-widow/
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