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''The Figurine: Araromire'' is a 2009 Nigerian supernatural suspense thriller film written by Kemi Adesoye, produced and directed by Kunle Afolayan, who also stars in the film as one of the main protagonists. It also stars Ramsey Nouah and Omoni Oboli. The movie narrates the story of two friends who finds a mystical sculpture in an abandoned shrine in the forest while serving at a National Youth Service Corps camp, and one of them decides to take the artwork home. Unknown to them, the sculpture is from the goddess 'Araromire' which bestows seven years of good luck on anyone who encounters it, and after the seven years have expired, seven years of bad luck follow. The lives of the two friends begin to change for good, as they become successful and wealthy businessmen. However, after seven years, things start to change for the worse. The original idea for a thriller film came long ago from Kunle Afolayan himself and Jovi Babs and it was to be titled ''Shrine''. The script took nine months to be finalized and the development stage took five years. The film was shot in Lagos and Osun State for three months and received sponsorship from companies such as MicCom Golf Resort, GSK, Omatek Computers, MTN, IRS Airlines, and Cinekraft. It also had media partners like HiTV and others. There were no professional stunts on the ground, so most of the stunts were performed by Kunle Afolayan on set. The film was first released at the 2009 Rotterdam International Film Festival and was met with wide critical acclaim.〔 It received ten nominations and won five awards at the 6th Africa Movie Academy Awards, including the awards for Best Picture, Heart of Africa, Achievement in Cinematography and Achievement in Visual Effects. On 31 July 2014, A book titled ''Auteuring Nollywood: Critical Perspectives on The Figurine'', detailing scholarly analysis of events in the film was released. The book was also welcomed with positive reviews. ''The Figurine'' has also been used as a subject of educational studies in the Arts department of some higher institutions. ==Plot== The film opens in Araromire in 1908: There is an old folktale about a goddess Araromire who asked a priest to invoke her spirit into a figurine carved out of the bark of a cursed tree. When villagers of Araromire touched the figurine, Araromire would grant them wealth and prosperity in all their endeavours. This good fortune however unfortunately lasted for just seven years, after which everything deteriorated and became worse than it was seven years ago. The climax of the disaster was when the priest who invoked her spirit was found dead at the river. The villagers become infuriated and invaded the Araromire shrine; the shrine is burned down and that ended the evil of Araromire. Lagos 2001: Femi (Ramsey Nouah) is about to go for his NYSC; He has been posted to Araromire – at this time, his father (David J. Oserwe) has been very ill (it is later revealed in the movie that he was dying of cancer). Sola (Kunle Afolayan) attends a job interview and apparently, he has no NYSC, He has also graduated with a third class. He is told he can't be employed without an NYSC certificate, so Sola visits the Dean of his faculty to get his clearance for NYSC. The Dean recognizes him as an irresponsible student who rarely attended his lectures. He further tells him that he used to date Mona who is on the contrary: a brilliant girl. The Dean asks him where he has been posted to; "Araromire", he replied. The Dean picks interest and brings out a book. He starts to narrate the folk story about the village and the goddess it was named after. However, Sola fails to listen to rest of the tale (the disaster which follows the seven years) as he politely leaves the dean's office with disinterest. Femi and Mona (Omoni Oboli) meet at the car park - She has been posted to Araromire as well; it is revealed here that they were once close friends. They both board a bus headed for Araromire. While in the bus, Mona is asleep and Femi brings out a ring; he stares at the ring and cuddles it while he stares at sleeping Mona. He is also seen cuddling the ring later at the camp. Sola finally arrives at the NYSC orientation camp when the camp is almost over. While at the camp, out on an endurance trek, Femi becomes drained and he stops in the woods to use his inhaler as he is an asthmatic patient. Sola also waits behind to help him out. While in the jungle, they begin to hear a strange sound which always comes up during camo parade. They both start to trace the sound and later discover a strange object on top of a tree that is emitting the sound. Rain starts to fall and they both find shelter in a mud house. Sola uses his lighter and starts to explore the place. The rain has stopped and Femi moves out of the building to get fresh air. Sola finds a figurine in an enclosed in a dusty wooden cradle. On the last day of Parade, Mona informs Femi that Sola proposed to her and she accepted. She also stated that she's carrying his baby. Femi seems jealous and tries to discourage Sola from getting married, but Sola declines. Sola brings out the figurine he found in the mud house and drops it on Femi's lap. Femi gets back from the NYSC only to see his father hale and hearty. He is also selected to go for a special training at his work place within just six months of his appointment. Sola gets a job as well and marries Mona. Seven years later, Femi arrives from abroad and attends Sola's 'get-together'. Mona (who is pregnant again) introduces Femi to Linda (Funlola Aofiyebi), a fashion designer. Throughout the party, Femi pays no attention to her and keeps staring at Mona whom he is apparently still in love with. Lara (Tosin Sido), Femi's younger sister, now lives with Sola's family as Mona is helping her with her thesis. However, The Araromire figurine is still kept at Sola's. Femi's asthma has been cured miraculously as he smoked at the party. Mona gets to know about the Araromire legend and she is worried; she begins to make conclusions and starts doubting the real source of the sudden wealth of the family. She also deduces that it may be the reason why her marriage with Sola has been so flawless, despite Sola having been a rascal and a Casanova back in school. She asks Lara to throw the figurine away but it returns into the house mysteriously. She then decides to throw it into the lagoon herself, she loses her pregnancy on her way to the lagoon. While dancing at the club with Linda, Femi gets an asthma attack again after so many years. Sola also starts having an affair with Ngozi again after so many years of being faithful to Mona, it is later discovered that he is having an affair with Lara as well and he also had an affair with Linda. Femi arrives at his apartment one day and sees his father dead in his crafts workshop. Both Femi and Sola eventually lose their jobs. Femi raises the topic of the figurine and suggests that they return it to the shrine; though Sola still doesn't believe the figurine is responsible for all the misfortune, he agrees. Junior (Tobe Oboli), Sola's first son, also dies by falling off from the building while trying to reach out to his mother — his father was having a big argument with his mum and the figurine was burnt. However, the figurine returns again. Then, Sola and Femi set out to return the figurine. Mona, now in depression, sends Lara out of her house believing she let her son die (She was supposed to be with him at the time Junior had the accident). Lara's box opens up while she's struggling with Linda who is throwing her things out and also pushing her out of the compound. Lots of Figurines; similar to the one in Sola's study start to fall out of Lara's box. Apparently, she has been responsible for 'the return of the figurine' each time it was thrown out! She's called in and she starts to make confessions revealing that She is being controlled by her brother, Femi. Femi and Sola arrive at the Araromire Shrine to return the figurine; rain starts to fall and Femi is nowhere to be found. While Sola is busy looking for Femi, Femi kills him by hitting him with a log of wood. Femi returns to Lagos and he is confronted by Linda, whom Lara has already confessed to. Femi confirms the truth by revealing many things which proves that the whole Araromire good luck and bad luck was all a charade orchestrated by him in order to kill Sola and get Mona all to himself. He terms the losing of their jobs, his father's death and his asthma 'coincidence'. He kills Linda afterwards and dumps her body in the lagoon. On his way back, he has his asthma attack and commands Lara to bring him his inhaler, but she refuses; instead, she calls the 'Rapid Response Squad' to report her brother's killings. Femi struggles to get upstairs. He reaches out to the body of Mona, he removes Sola's ring from her finger and replaces it with his ring (which he was always staring at earlier). The Rapid Response Squad arrives and declares Femi dead. Linda, Femi and Mona are later seen alive and the movie ends with the caption 'What do you believe'? 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Figurine」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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