A common flaw in films attempting to communicate social ills is the struggle to stay compelling. To compel doesn’t necessarily mean to entertain. These objectives may belong in the same spectrum but there are acute differences. To compel is to suck your audience into a dramatic construct that appeals regardless of its social message. Sucking in your audience is usually achieved with the conveyor belt of drama, comedy, thrill, satire, tragedy, horror, and so on. This is not an easy task for any filmmaker; the clear delineations between bad, good, and great filmmaking are enough evidence. Coming from Insanity by Akinyemi Sebastian Akinropo is an admirable effort that shines the torch on child trafficking but refuses the contemplative hue expected of socially conscious cinema. Rather, it balances muted, topical introspection with the boisterous dynamism of genre work. Perhaps it helps that Coming from Insanity is a true-life story. That the…
