The Power – The Day of the Girls

By starrymag | April 14, 2023

By: Dawn Inchaurregui-Miller

 

 

Tunde (Toheeb Jimoh) is on the start of his journey to capture footage of electric girls from all over the world. He rides in the back of a taxi on his way to a hotel in Saudi Arabia. En route he speaks to the taxi driver, who attempts to shut down any talk of the new power and the girls who are forbidden from using it. As the car travels through the street, it hits traffic and he cups his hands when he sees a faint spark between a cluster of bins, though he can’t see who is doing it. He takes note of the area, Sulaymaniyah, so he can head back after dropping his things at the hotel. As the car passes by, we are taken for a closer look at the girl hiding behind bins, watching her hands in amazement as she runs the electricity through her fingers.

At the convent the girls sit together in the communal room watching something that seems to have been government made, to teach girls about the power, where it comes from in their body and how to use it safely. It includes a scientific breakdown of the new organ and information on how it can be passed to older women if a younger one activates the organ. Outside, Allie (Halle Bush) is on her way to feed the chickens, when she passes one of the girls, Savannah (Emily Renée), using the electricity to effectively zap off her leg hair. Apparently Sister Veronica (Emily Kuroda) doesn’t allow the use of razors. The voice begins to tell Allie that she can use the power in ways the others can’t and reminds her of the eels that can manipulate the minds of their prey using the electrocytes in their body.

Allie opens the chicken pen and moves the hay aside as the voice talks her through practising on one of the chickens. She places her hands on the metal surface that the chicken is standing on. Concentrating her mind, she conducts the electricity, making the chicken walk and peck but then she accidentally kills it. Although the death of the chicken was untimely, she is now starting to understand the depth of her own abilities. She is interrupted by Sister Veronica calling her name after witnessing her kill the chicken.

Bernie Monke (Eddie Marsan) takes his daughter Roxy (Ria Zmitrowicz) in through what looks like a large garage or storage facility, telling her that they found one of the men that murdered her mother. The man is dead on the floor, his arms and legs bent back and tied together. Bernie tells her he was drowned alive and got what he deserved, but Roxy wants the other killer to meet the same fate. He tells her it’s over and seemingly wants the hunt and the conversation to end. She pushes him again about the second assailant and he snaps at her to leave the garage. She’s back inside the car as they close up and Bernie asks his son, Darrell (Archie Rush), to take her out for the night to let her blow off steam.

Tunde arrives at his hotel and begins to make a short video on his camera explaining that women are not allowed to use “EOD” (Electric Organ Discharge) in the country, nor are they allowing journalists to report about what is happening. He snuck in using a student visa and intends to report on how that law is affecting people. He packs up his backpack and prepares to head back to the area that he wrote down in his phone.

Back in that alley, hidden behind the bins where he saw the flicker of electricity, the young girl still sits practising while two other girls sit up in a window watching her in amazement. They suddenly notice a group of men approaching her direction and tap on the window to warn her, but she doesn’t hear them. When they see her using the electricity, one of them becomes very angry as girls are not allowed to use EOD. He picks up a stick and beats her around the head as the girls upstairs sit in shock, watching the street below their window. He continues to hit her in the head until other women see what is happening and run to help the girl. Several other men also intervene and tell the young man that he should be ashamed of himself and force him to stand back from her. Looking down again from the window, the two girls can see a woman bent over the little girl, who is now on her back, unmoving in the street. The girl’s mother comes to their house, begging their parents to help. She hurriedly tells them that her daughter Amal (Hani Ovadia) used the electricity and has been badly beaten in the street. The couple rush out to help her and ignoring their parents’ wishes, so do the two young girls that witnessed the horror from their bedroom.

Tunde arrives in a taxi and follows two women that appear to be rushing somewhere. Hearing a crowd, he picks up the pace and arrives as the women shout that they want to see Amal and protect her. She is inside a building but it is unclear who exactly is inside with her. The crowd is mixed with people shocked she used the electricity, women wanting justice for what happened to her, and the young men responsible for the attack. When the police arrive they demand everyone stop recording and one grabs a phone from one of the women and throws her to the ground. This leads a teenage girl to step forward, put her hands on the officer’s back and shock him to his knees. Tunde, having lowered his camera to his chest, catches this moment on film as all the women smile and surround the brave girl, touching her hands. The police flee the scene and the crowd shout that it is now safe for Amal as the police have gone. Those inside, open up the gates and several members of the crowd push inside calling her name. Tunde holds up his camera, capturing the moment of communal shock as they watch the young girl being carried out into the street by relatives and neighbours. The sight of her innocent, young and terrifyingly motionless is enough to ignite something among all the women. As they gently place her in the car, the women vow to walk alongside them to the hospital. All the women march as one as the car begins to drive  “see us, hear us,” they chant, multiple phones now proudly held up to record.

In the office Sister Veronica and Sister Maria (Daniela Vega) discuss the electricity after witnessing Allie accidentally electrocute the chicken. Sister Veronica believes the EOD is the devil’s work and is terrified of what it will do to the world. Sister Maria wholeheartedly disagrees and compares it to other silly things that were once thought the devils work, such as rock n’ roll and women wearing trousers. The talk turns to Allie again when Sister Veronica states she doesn’t trust her, but after pointing out that her mentor trusts none of the girls Sister Maria also says Jesus did not choose to only help people that carry an ID. Sister Veronica continues on that she has a bad feeling about her and reminds her that Allie killed the chicken. Sister Maria flatly points out that they kill chickens too and even eat them after. She even goes so far as to say that Allie reminds her of Sister Veronica and that she’s a leader, but the convent leader wants her gone after the storm. Allie, outside with an ear pressed to the door, stands up after hearing that she will be kicked out. She speaks aloud to the voice saying she wants to stay and the voice responds that she can if she wants to, she just has to own the place.

Outside a club in London Roxy’s brothers Darrell, Terry (Sam Buchanan) and Ricky (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd) take her out for drinks to try and help her forget about the murder for a while. The bouncer tries to stop her entering, until they inform him that she is Bernie Monkes daughter and she mockingly demands a smile from him. Inside the club they head to the bar where Roxy zaps a man on the buttocks as he attempts to show off to a girl. The three siblings then begin knocking back drink after drink.

Back in Saudi Arabia the crowd of women, Tunde and some sympathetic men, have built up and continue to chant as they walk. But as they march through the streets a cluster of police officers attempt to stop them, shouting through a megaphone. Tunde turns the camera to himself and gives a short reminder of the turn of events that led to the growing protest. A man reaches out and grabs one of the women to stop the crowd, but he soon lets go after being electrocuted. Tunde says aloud that the women who have EOD are no longer afraid to use it. A loud explosion and fire break out, diverting the women down the side streets but doesn’t deter them from their pursuit to be heard. Tunde has his back turned and records a woman happily chanting, not realizing the police have arrived again. They begin firing guns from behind him and the camera is still focused on the woman, as a bullet hits her in the chest and she falls down dead. As they all scream and duck, some of the women bravely stand and several that have passed come back and collectively place their hands on the police officers and shock them. They hold them to the ground until they are dead, giving others the chance to run past. Tunde hides behind a pillar, unsure what to do, when tear gas is thrown down and he is pulled out by a woman who saw him hiding. Seemingly no stranger to tear gas, she hands him a bottle of water and tissue to clean his eyes. Having recovered and undeterred, the crowd begins to move once more as Tunde introduces himself to Nourah (Amina Ben Ismaïl). The camera pans up and shows the enormity of the crowds, swelling in from all sides of the city, chanting together as one for their human rights.

Sat outside the back of the club now drunk, Roxy sits in tears thinking of her mothers murder and remembering laying next to her body. Her brother Terry sits beside her and tries to comfort her, but she is inconsolable, calling out that she wants her mum. He decides it’s a good idea to offer her cocaine and jumping at this she takes bump after bump and is then not only drunk, but rowdy and ready to dance.

Allie walks into the glass hallway of the convent as some of the other girls find a dead bird. They try to figure out how to remove it, but she wants to see if she can help. She leans down and taking it in her hands, lifts it up. The voice talks through the process again of entering the mind the way an eel does and she begins to look inside it, focusing her abilities on restarting the bird’s heart. She circles her thumbs and the bird’s heart begins to pump again. The moment is made more beautiful with the camera following as she throws the bird up into the air, bursting into flight as the sun flows through the glass hallway and it begins to fly around the room. The girls are all excited and amazed, including Sister Maria who walked in just in time to witness the miracle.

The sky is now dark but the streets back in Saudi Arabia are still filling up with. They walk through a backstreet where a woman in the top of a building gets their attention and throws a note down asking for help. Her husband will not let her leave and she is clutching to bars on the window as he attempts to aggressively pull her back. The women spring into action, running up the stairs and breaking into the house. We hear him shrieking and the sound of electricity, before she is carefully brought down the stairs. Tunde watches in awe with a big smile across his face, as one of the girls places her outstretched hands onto the older woman’s chest. She passes the electricity to her, instantly waking the organ that sat dormant between her collar bones. With joyful arms stretched up to the night sky, she begins to light it up alongside the others with a spark of her own.

Tunde’s voice carries over to the next scene, marking this as the “The Day Of The Girls.”

Allie and a cluster of the other girls sit sunbathing on rocks by the ocean, before making their way back towards the convent. The topic of discussion is whether EOD is bad and something to be ashamed of. The girls begin to listen to Allie as she talks of it as a gift to even things out between men and women. She is surprised when she receives a hug after telling one of them that it already is a better place for her little girl to grow up in.

Roxy’s brothers try to distract her as she talks a million miles an hour about getting revenge on the other man responsible for her mothers murder. She tells them that she wants to take him on as they try to quiet her with another drink, telling her that their dad wants to leave it now. She storms off to dance and begins to crackle her electricity as she touches the screens on the walls and as she dances.

Back in Saudi Arabia, hundreds of soldiers stand with bullet proof shields and batons, hitting them rhythmically. The rest with guns raised and a tank at the ready. The protesting women grow closer and they try to use water to disperse the crowd. They are told to turn back but the women, male sympathisers, Tunde and the car all continue to move forward as one. Soldiers begin to beat women with batons and a dozen of the girls launch forward to the tank. They put their hands upon it and send ripples of electricity through their bodies, shorting the giant weapon. One of the men opens the top of the tank and begins to shoot out into the crowd, but stops when he hears the familiar voice of his mother. He pauses when she talks to him and not another soul speaks as she tells him they just want to pass. He looks ashamed and begins to lower his gun, prompting a voice to call out to the soldiers and the rest of them lower their weapons. The women begin to pass, some even stopping to help the soldiers leave the tank safely. Tunde captures the tender moment the mother proudly places her hand on the face of a son who dropped arms to let her and thousands of other women pass safely through.

The storm is due as the girls play piano and smoke inside the church of the convent. It seems as good a time as any for two of the girls to explore their bodies and sexuality, giggling together as they kiss. The voice tells Allie she has found her family as Sister Maria comes to fetch them now the storm is due. She chooses to playfully overlook the budding lesbianism and smoking and opts to blame the candles. They rush back to the convent where the other girls and nuns have set up candles around the room. A minute or so later Luanne (Alli Boyer-Ybarra) begins to fit and the others try to make her as comfortable as possible, stating she will come out of it in a few hours. Allie walks towards her and bends to her knees, hovering her hands over the girls head and body. Sister Veronica tries to tell her not to use her electricity, but Allie needs to concentrate and tells her to shut up. The music swells as the voice talks her through finding the glitch in the girl’s body. Allie settles her hands on Luanne’s head, making Luanne fall still. Everyone gasps believing her to be dead, but a moment later she takes a deep breath and opens her eyes. The awe and shock around the room is palpable as some of the girls gasp, laugh or cry and some begin to film.

Roxy’s brothers grab her when she becomes less and less shy about using her electricity in the club. They pull her upstairs where she asks them how they would feel if it was their own mother that had been murdered. She thinks her dad would be doing more if she were the daughter of his wife, at which point both Darrell and Terry tell her she is their dads favourite and he just wants to protect her. Roxy follows Terry out onto the balcony and he eventually cracks and tells her they know who the other attacker was and eventually gives her the address. She turns and begins marching through the club and they grab their other brother, Ricky, as Roxy storms out the front with them desperately tryjng to calm and stop her. She zaps Darrell, leaving them all scared to touch her, then uses her hands to start the engine up. The three of them quickly pile into the car and while she drives on a mission, they eventually accept the fact that she is going to find him and begin passing around cocaine to each other.

Tunde is still recording as they march and passes by a woman repeatedly shocking a soldier. He tries to intervene and several of them start using their EOD on him. Nourah has to step in before anything more serious happens and reminds him that journalists cannot get involved. She tells him he needs to go home as it isn’t safe anymore. He calls his editor who refuses to take his footage while he is still in Saudi Arabia and hangs up. Nourah suggests they head to his hotel to collect his belongings so she can help him leave, but when he gets up to his room, he sees his belongings have been searched. Meeting her out the front they hastily move through the streets trying to avoid being seen. Nourah tells him they must have been after the footage that he has on him and is probably on a “no fly” list. They pass soldiers executing a woman in the street and hide in an empty building.

When upstairs Tunde watches back the footage and Nourah leaves the room to make an arrangement for her sister’s friend, a doctor, to sneak him out through the Jordanian border. Tunde attempts to make a call to his friend Ndudi, but she doesn’t answer. When Nourah is back Tunde expresses his gratitude for her help and insists in turn on helping her leave the country, making her laugh as she responds that she doesn’t wish to leave. She was lucky enough to have an education in Egypt, outside of her home country of Saudi Arabia and wants other women to have the same opportunity for education. She asks him how he feels when people assume living in Nigeria is bad and he laughs, admitting that it’s irritating. She teases him that he wanted to save her and then lifts her phone to look at the screen and tells him the car is here.

Roxy pulls the car up in front of a house and leaves her brothers inside as she makes her way to the door and begins to hammer on it. A man named Tony (Daniel Coonan) answers, who is instantly recognizable as one her mother’s attackers. He closes the door behind him but we catch a glimpse of his wife and daughter running up the stairs behind him. He puts a hand on Roxy’s shoulder and leads her away from the house. Up in the window of the top floor his little girl looks down at them in the street as Roxy confronts him. Tony recognizes her and she tells him who she is and that he killed her mom. He snickers and pretends not to know which mom in particular she was talking about, leading a drunk Roxy to try using her EOD on him. It fails, causing her to look down on her hands for a second giving him a chance to punch her in the face. All three of her brothers spring into action and get out of the car in her defense, but she is already back up and shocking him to his knees. Behind them another car pulls up with two men that work for Tony. Her brothers fight the men back, outnumbering them three to two, as a now scared Tony tells Roxy he didn’t kill her mother. She doesn’t believe him as she had seen him with her own eyes, but he claims he can tell her who actually is responsible. Her brothers manage to momentarily pull her back, but she lunges forward and shocks him, sending him several metres back into a pile of garbage bags. All five men stand in silent shock as Roxy doesn’t stop there, she continues to shoot electricity at him from across the front garden, setting the bins around him on fire.

The silence is broken when Terry takes a swing at one of the men, anticipating an attack from behind. A fight breaks out between all of them, with Terry pulls out a gun, leading the two men to take shelter inside Tony’s house. Roxy slowly stands, ignoring the fight behind her. Sshe looks up at the window. She realises the little girl watched her dad die, just as Roxy had done with her own mother. With the men now inside, we see Terry, Tony, Darrell and Roxy scramble to get inside the car before things get any worse. However, it’s impossible to start the car with the key, as Roxy had used her hands to start it on their way over.  Before they have a chance to get the car working, the men have already begun to shoot down at them from the house and a bullet hits Terry. The brothers panic and Roxy lets out a blood curdling scream. Ricky calls their dad telling him that Terry is badly hurt and as Roxy pulls into the driveway Darrell and Tony burst out of the car. They scream for their dad as they drag Terry over to the front door covered in blood. Barbara, their mom, flys over to the car, swings the door open and begins to throw slaps and punches at Roxy but Toni pulls her back. The music swells as Roxy hits her head, hysterically crying realizing the price she paid for vengeance.

Sister Veronica paces her office in thought and prayer, searching for guidance after witnessing the miracle that Eve performed. She rejoins the girls downstairs, who sit smiling and laughing together and demands that Eve come forward. She says there are consequences to actions and as she used the electricity in the convent, it’s time for her to go. Eve walks towards her and carefully chooses her words when she responds, “You don’t get to tell us what to do anymore.” Eve then exits the room and most of the girls follow behind her.

Allie walks the beach with bare feet as the sun begins to rise behind her showing the other girls all quietly looking down at her from the slight hill behind her. The camera then shows girls playing in the broken wreckage left by last night’s protests. Tunde begins a voice over stating that the dawn of this new day brings new freedoms, privileges and abilities for women all over the world – not just in Saudi Arabia.

We then see a car speeding along a track through miles of sand. Inside the car the doctor drives, keeping her head forward as Tunde watches back the videos of the night before. He cries when he sees the girl that was shot right in front of him and his voice carries on narrating over the scene and the gentle music that accompanies it. He says that the liberation isn’t without a cost which circles us back to Sister Veronica’s words, that actions have consequences. He narrates that if we want all of humanity to be equal, we must fight to better our natures. He says he believes in what will come, after the reckoning.