‘By Mava John Joshua
Let’s look at this word “Strain” from Engineering perspective, this can be regarded as the deformation of a material from stress. It is simply a ratio of the change in length to the original length. Deformations that are applied perpendicular to the cross section are normal strains, while deformations applied parallel to the cross section are shear strains.
The movie “Strained” follows the part where Ebere (Tracey George) though pronounced by Abigail (Queen Nwokoye) her mother as Ebele( a typical Igbo person who calls the letter “R” as “L”) was abandoned during her formative days with her abusive father, and the effects of this abandonment was enlarged perpendicularly (as she was growing up) and then leading to a deformed relationship heightened by the mother not taking time to visit her as a boarding house student at Methodist College, Enugu during visiting days in her days of yore. This early disappointment lays the foundation for their strained relationship, which is further explored as the story unfolds.
Ebere latter got married to Ozo (Samuel Nwabuike) (though did not invite her mother, this also caused a severe strain on the mother that wanted to witness the occasion) So the strains can be assumed to be both perpendicular in Ebere while growing up and vertical towards the mother relationship wise
Going forward, she gives birth to a baby and facing the demands of caring for her newborn, they both (husband and wife) are doing the little they can until he received a call for a business trip to Calabar, they find themselves in a dilemma/quagmire hence the husband calls the mother to come around for “Omugwo” (‘Omugwo’ is an Igbo word that is used to describe the practice in which a nursing mother and her baby are taken care of by a close family member. In most cases the wife’s mother) Reluctantly, he reaches out to the wife’s estranged mother, for help, despite the opposition and resistance from Ebere, she preferred an alternative with the husbands sister but unfortunately she won’t be available, setting the stage for a highly charged reunion.
However, Ebere’s heart is still filled with resentment toward her mother, anytime she remembers her childhood experiences, that bitterness stems from a traumatic past as explained above, but seeing the level of naivety when it comes to raising a baby, I think the onions is now on Ebere to let bygones be bygones and forge a common front and move to the next stage of life, after all there two sides to a coin, because I feel there is need to listen to the mother’s side of the story
Furthermore I feel disappointed at the choice of Queen Nwokeye to play the role of a mother, she looked quite younger than the daughter despite the claims of going through hard times after she left the husbands house with the obvious and uncomfortable use of glasses, we see her always trying to peep from the top of the lens
The coming of Maria (Padita Agu), Ebere’s friend into the movie, helped put some distractions to the already predictable approach to the movie as the consistent and continuous show of the movie between Ebere and Abigail was making the movie become completely uninteresting and boring
Maria’s complaint of her relationship not working becomes another subject to look at, because I find it sometimes difficult when women always say men cheat and keep late nights, before a man will decide to keep late night and avoid his home, there might be some issues that must have led to that, especially the women folks
I will say the Director (Okechukwu Oku) and Producer (The Oracle Films) together with a handful of other cast and crew members with a low budget were able to deliver some key points to as many viewers: portraying the fact that we can’t just assume and keep on putting blames on an issue when we don’t know the story behind the other person’s behaviour leading to any kind of strain between different parties.
