Welcome to Lagos
Welcome to Lagos is BBC documentary that depicts the life of people in the most populated city in Nigeria. This film is unique and interesting because it shows another side of poverty and dirty places as well as poor living conditions, with which it is often characterised by foreigners. People living there are cheerful and resourceful, full of energy and beliefs in their future, seeing a great opportunity in just everything, starting from the perfume bottle found in the rubbish and finishing with the writing rap songs and performing them at the stage to the people having fun.
The film starts with showing how people work at the huge rubbish dump, looking for a little bit valuable things in the rubbish brought there in order to further sell them to get some money for living. The film shows many people doing this every day and closely tells the story of Eric Obuh, who works there predominantly to have the financial opportunity to mix the songs he creates in the studio and buy different things he needs for life. The story of Eric Obuh continues with showing his place of living and the conditions of living people in Lagos face. High temperatures and mosquitos are the smallest problems from the big range they have. Another story, the story of Joseph, the father of the family, pictures the fact that there are also people who have businesses in the dump. He is doing his best to see his wife and children happy and build a promising future for them.
The rubbish dumps shown closely and the author tells that it is huge city inside the city, having even cinemas, shops, bars, mosque, restaurants and many other things.
Another place shown is the kettle market, which feeds the city. There people can find living kettle as well as buy the meat, as the animals are killed just over there. The film tells the stories of those who work in this very place and the way they make money. One of those people, who had graduated from agricultural university makes money with selling blood from the kettle killed. This is not just the way to earn money for him, but also the matter of protecting the environment, as before he did this all of the waste from kettle slaughter was poured into the river, making the water dirty and dangerous.
The story told in the film shows not only the opportunities, but also the challenges these people face. One of them was a great fire at the rubbish dump at the end of dry season that became the reason why many workers could not earn anything during this period. This event also brought much sorrow to the workers.
The film also shows the positive ways of life of those people who work so hard. One of such moments is a show night of Eric Obuh, who performs his own songs on the stage, but after that participates in a fight and becomes an enemy for many people in the dump and the participant of the court case. The story with the court case finished with an operation for a person injured, a court punishment for Eric and a big sum of money given to the family of an injured person.
Despite of working so hard and having so many challenges to face, people in Lagos are happy with the life they have and the country they live in. They like their living in Lagos, the most populated city in Nigeria, the city they love.
