Pregnant Joyce Unanga played by Omoni Oboli and her husband Paul Unaga played by Sam Sarpong are illegal immigrants in the United States. Their visas have expired and their time in the USA is up. They were offered voluntary deportation 3 months previously but refused to take it Joyce has 4 months until she gives birth and has agreed with her husband that they will lay under the radar hiding from immigration until the baby is born. This anchor baby will act as a device for the family to gain legal foothold into the United States;. Joyce isn’t so keen on the idea but her husband Paul is desperate for their child to be born in the United States and have an American passport so that he/she can be afforded the same opportunities as American born kids.

After a raid at Paul’s workplace, where Paul drops his phone after running from immigration officials immigration and are hot on their tails and one morning while Joyce is out on her daily walk they pounce and grab Paul. Joyce has no choice but to evacuate the apartment if she too doesn’t want to be caught. She is left alone, homeless and pregnant looking for a place to stay when she comes across a Good Samaritan by the name Susan played by Teri Oliver in a doctor’s office. Susan comes in to save the day and offers her her basement to live in until the baby is born. It sounds too good to be true. Is it?

The movie highlights the harsh realities of being an illegal immigrant. It is not an easy life. You have no ID card or insurance to see a doctor, no ID to rent an apartment. You can not work because you have no work permit. You are seemingly present but more or less invisible. Sometimes resorting to further illegal behaviour is the only way to survive as we see in this movie whereby Joyce and Susan end up visiting a criminal counterfeiter in order to order clones cards so that she can have ID and gain access to public services such as medical attention that most people take for granted. There is no dignity for an illegal alien. When Joyce does turn herself in at the end of the movie she is treated like a common criminal, which she clearly doesn’t see herself as. She is put in handcuffs much to her horror. She pleads with the arresting officer that it is unnecessary as she is handing herself in voluntarily. Her pleas go ignored.

The performances in the movie were good and solid. There wasn’t anyone that had the wow factor for me except for Omoni. Omoni Oboli was the standout for me. It was an absolute stellar performance. She was passionate and convincing and conveyed a gamut of emotions effectively. I didn’t think Sam’s performance was as good. It was also glaringly obvious that he was not Nigerian as the film said he was so that was a huge miscasting in my opinion. Not to say that the guy was bad but next to Omoni he was coming across as pretty mediocre.

Read the full review here: http://nollywoodforever.com/anchor-baby/

Thanks dear!

did any nler watch this movie?

besides the poster.