Issue 25: "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." -Eleanor Roosevelt  September 24th 2024

Oluniké Adeliyi Shines in Village Keeper, Exploring Trauma and Strength

Village Keeper tells the emotional story of Beverly-Jean (Oluniké Adeliyi), a grief-stricken single mother protecting her children from violence while haunted by traumatic flashbacks of abuse from her late husband. Living in a crowded apartment in Toronto's Lawrence Heights, Jean struggles to keep her family safe alongside her two teenage children, Tamika (Zahra Bentham) and Tristin (Micah Mensah-Jatoe), and her mother (Maxine Simpson). The film covers themes of domestic violence and intergenerational trauma.

Brampton-raised Oluniké Adeliyi delivers a compelling performance playing Jean’s complex emotional journey. Her nuanced facial expressions reveal deep-seated trauma from dark family secrets while also capturing joy, like when she dances at Toronto’s Caribana festival.

Chapman effectively uses non-verbal communication to enhance the narrative. Jean is often seen alone, riding public transit to do errands and get to her caregiver job in a more affluent neighborhood. Passing a Chinese restaurant triggers recurring unpleasant flashbacks, and she later returns with her children for closure. Jean worries about protecting her kids from their own emotional challenges: Tamika suffers panic attacks after seeing blood in an elevator, while Tristin is accused of hitting another boy at school.

Healing in Your Own Way

Village Keeper succeeds on various levels. For one, it provides space for each family member to heal in their own way. Jean feels compelled to improve her family's circumstances and seeks help from a therapist for her kids when things seem to be falling apart.

Chapman says mental health isn't often discussed around the kitchen table in the Black community. Therapy is often associated with being “crazy,” and a popular view is to tough it out. In the Q&A after the screening, she said,

"I think for me, I wanted to create a reality that was different to my own. My family never made it into that [therapy] room. I really wanted to write something that was hopeful for a family and the possibilities and just to scratch the surface on mental health."

She suggests that survivors of abuse or those who feels shame in their current circumstances take small steps to boost their mental health and happiness:

"I don't think everyone has to go to therapy. Like with grandma [in the film], it's her garden, it's her giving, that's her way. I think we just have to find the way as opposed to living in the shame of the thing. However you do that and at whatever age, I just think it's quite urgent [to do something.]"

The Problem with Upward Mobility at Any Cost

In her essay, Chapman critiques society's unrealistic expectations of breadwinners, particularly single mothers, and the sacrifices they make to pursue upward mobility. She writes:

“Before I started writing Village Keeper, I was ruminating on a handful of themes. Hard truths that go lifetimes without being spoken. … Class divides and the demoralizing pursuit of upward mobility, with the strain it puts on breadwinners (particularly single mothers). The enduring capacity of mothers living with broken hearts while building love-filled lives for their children.”

Celebrating Resilience and Hope

Chapman wanted her characters to focus less on constant struggles and more on noticing and appreciating the small joys and moments of gratitude in daily life, no matter how insignificant they might seem. By shifting the emphasis to these aspects of the human experience that are often overlooked, she created a more uplifting and hopeful story.

"I was also interested in this quest for better, this hustle [culture] for a better, a bigger house, a better car. And the question of in the midst of that hustle, can I not be happy? In the midst of trying to get the better [and faster] life , why not just take the long way home? We think that we're going to be happy tomorrow. Tomorrow may never come. What do we do with the time that we forego happiness until retirement? That's no fun."

Despite tackling serious topics, Chapman says Village Keeper is ultimately about hope, resilience, and celebrating women and survivors.

"We didn't want to make a sad film. We wanted to make a film that champions women who survived and people who survived abuse. And the lives they built afterwards."