“THE TRAIN” REVIEW – MIKE BAMILOYE’S MOUNT ZION TRANSITION IS COMPLETE
From father to son, the transition in leadership of the famous faith-based movie brand (Mount Zion) reaches completion. The poetic release of “The Train: A Journey of Faith” signals the nearing of one ministry’s full circle, and the crafting of the arc of another. Damilola is the new Mike Bamiloye – the new face of the renowned Christian cinema brand. His latest work, “The Train” is almost three hours long, and, to engage the child inside me who keeps pulling out scenes from Apoti Eri and The Gods are Dead, I compared Damilola’s work to that of the first Mike Bamiloye during my watch. My takeouts: much of Mount Zion’s conservative model is sustained and the leadership of the ministry choose evolution at a walking pace.
Comparison, as we know it, is the silent thief of joy, but here the focus is on the relationship between the perspectives of the founder of Mount Zion and his imminent successor. It also captures a gleam of the ministry’s future. “The Train” is the story of daddy Mike Bamiloye, who lived a troubled childhood. During a fateful service in Lagos, he had a visceral encounter with the author of his destiny, albeit he slid back into the world briefly, he moved in with God full-time. The story is told in 7 discrete but sequenced parts: Iya Eleni, He Knows my name, The Turn Around, and the work begins, Sister Gloria, The Train, Stage to screen.
“The train” highlights the extremities of the risk and reward of faith and full surrender to the influence of divinity which characterizes most, if not all, Christian stories. Mike Bamiloye I is a destiny child whose script had been read quite early by his mother; the boy must walk through fire and fight mental and spiritual wars against his flesh and his Christian family to become fulfilled as a man of God. The movie is a guided walk through his journey of faith. “The Train” is the sort of story fathers tell their sons, only that this is viewed from a Christian lens, in which every aspect – from career through marriage and friendship – is driven by faith and piety.
Watch The Train here: https://youtu.be/5mFvb62VMkc
On a second look, and objectively this time, the delivery of this true-life event is peppered with a more than little dose of familial sentiments and exaggerated sweeteners which pardons any thought of young Mike turning out to be worse than Seun Egbegbe, if his was anything other than divine salvation. The faith-based narration in “The Train” is as Mount Zion-esque as they come, not so evolved as, say, “God Calling.” The drama ministry continues to wear Christianity as a white garment which must not be touched with any form of secularism. This austere style of filmmaking is sure to split Nigerians between the emotions of gripping immersion or tedium from uber-religious fictionalization of the story – the room for fence-sitting is small, if there’s any at all.
One quietly present conversation in the story is the mystery of divination – how one God could inspire the differences of divergent groups of believers on a particular subject (the dream of Bro. MAB) – and the extent of Christian evolution, and the extended society, regarding careers today. The transparency in vintage Christian courtship, as shown by Bro. Mike & Sister Shola Obeme, might be the lesson the world needs to maintain blissful relationships with no complication of unearthed secrets. As Pastor Mark Hankins put it, “don’t take anyone on a journey they do not know.”- a word of advice Bro. Mike took to keenly.
Trending at #1 on YouTube for days and raking near a million views in about a week, the commercial success of The Train proves two things: the Christian cinema audience of the days of tapes and cassette now exists online and the new generation Mount Zion has cracked the code of the digital movie business. It is left to see if Damilola Mike-Bamiloye and co. can continue to satisfy the audience content-wise in the future. Mount Zion’s preference for evangelism over commercial value is no secret, but big numbers, when they come, are wins. Particularly when they do not come at a hefty price of compromise on the intended message, which in this case is Mike Bamiloye’s fulfillment of destiny.
Written by Oluwatobi Ibironke
Twitter: @ibironketweets
