Movie with Abe: The Supreme Price (Capsule Review)

The Supreme Price
Directed by Joanna Lipper
Released October 3, 2014

The assassination of a political leader is a topic ripe for documentary filmmaking. That’s doubly true when the leader in question is a woman serving as president in her husband’s absence for an African county. “The Supreme Price” tells the story of Kudirat Abiola, whose husband was elected to be the leader of Nigeria in a historic free election in 1993, as recounted by one of her daughters, Hafsat, who was attending Harvard at the time of her mother’s assassination. This eye-opening and comprehensive documentary is a strong and involving look at how one country has managed to transform within itself while still being confined by its inescapable history.

“The Supreme Price” tells the story of one nation, but wisely chooses to approach it from a global perspective. Those interviewed, including Hafsat and one of her siblings, speak English fluently and have a greater sense of what the world is like. The entire film is in English, with subtitles provided only when one interview subject’s accent is particularly thick. In this case, what those questioned say and the history the film chronicles are equally interesting, which make for an important, convincing, and timely documentary.

B+