Seven years after ‘Drawing Strength’, Dimbo Atiya is returning to a familiar world with a more difficult question: what happens when love is tested in public and everything says, ‘Walk away’?

His new film, ‘Strong’, which began showing in cinemas on May 15, revisits the characters of Lami and Sota, played by Sophie Alakija and Chris Okagbue. But instead of continuing where the 2019 film left off, Atiya uses time itself as a storytelling device, reuniting both actors with their characters years later, now older, married, and facing a different kind of crisis.

For Alakija, watching that passage of time on screen was immediate. “I look so skinny. “So tiny”, she said at the film’s premiere, reacting to scenes shot years earlier. “But it was so good because then it makes the film amazing because it’s really from seven years ago.”

That time jump is central to ‘Strong’. Where ‘Drawing Strength’ followed characters searching for stability through personal struggles, the new film asks what comes after when that stability is shaken.

Atiya builds the story around a reversal. In the earlier film, it was Lami who carried the emotional weight. This time, the focus shifts to Sota, whose life unravels after he is accused of infidelity and murder. The accusation places their marriage under public scrutiny, forcing Lami into a position that is less about belief and more about endurance.

“We figured, seven years after, where would the characters be?” Atiya said. “And then we flipped the entire story.”

That shift becomes the film’s central tension: not just whether Sota is guilty, but whether Lami stays.

At its core, ‘Strong’ is less about scandal and more about response. It interrogates a familiar instinct: to leave when things become complicated. For Atiya, that instinct reflects a broader cultural shift.

“A lot of people don’t want to stick it out,” he said. “Once I can’t deal with this thing, I’ll just walk away. It’s very easy.”

The film pushes back on that idea, asking a question it returns to repeatedly: will people still stand by you when you fall?

Around that question, the cast itself appears divided.

Alakija acknowledges the tension between reality and possibility. Watching the film, she admits even she questioned her character’s choices. “Wake up”, she joked, describing her reaction to Lami’s decisions. Still, she insists the story isn’t entirely unrealistic. “There’s one in a million chance, but there’s still that one chance that it will happen.”

For Eva Ibiam, who plays Lami’s outspoken cousin Shantok, the answer is less patient. “If I saw someone close to me go through this, I don’t know if I would just sit back,” she said. “I would drag you out of the house.”

That contrast between staying and leaving, between faith and self-preservation, sits at the centre of ‘Strong’. It’s also where the film feels most in conversation with its audience.

Actor Callistus Akunaeziri frames it as a generational shift. “In our world today, it’s not fashionable anymore to stay strong,” he said. “Everyone… once there’s a crack, I’m out the door.”

The film doesn’t resolve that tension so much as sit in it. Instead, it layers in ideas of commitment and belief, suggesting that love is less about declaration and more about sustained effort. For Fadekemi Olumide-Aluko, that’s the takeaway. “It’s not enough to just say I love you,” she said. “You have to do the work.”

That emphasis on “work” on staying through discomfort rather than exiting it positions ‘Strong’ as a deliberate counterpoint to the kind of relationship narratives that dominate both social media and everyday conversations.

But the film stops short of prescribing a single answer. Even within its own world, loyalty is not presented as simple or always justified. Instead, it becomes a risk that demands trust in the face of doubt and patience in the absence of clarity.

In revisiting these characters after seven years, Atiya reframes the story, shifting the focus from finding strength to proving it.

And in doing so, ‘Strong’ leaves its audience with a question that extends beyond its plot: Is staying still a form of strength or a choice fewer people are willing to make?

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