If there’s a sneaky trend that I’ve noticed in the last few years, it’s the rise of folkloric films. There was a major release for an adaptation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Ari Aster loosely remade The Odyssey this spring. There are multiple films centered around La Llorona—the vengeful Mexican spirit.

In C.J. “Fiery” Obasi’s Mami Wata, the director utilizes the eponymous deity, a water spirit venerated in West, South and Central Africa. Mami Wata is the guiding spirt and force of the community of Iyi. Here, intepreting their will is the stoic Mama Efe (Rita Edochie). Mama Efe largely refutes progress; in one notable scene she refuses an offer of vaccines, claiming that the “village is well protected.” This places her at odds with her daughters Zinwe (Uzoamaka Aniunoh) and Prisca (Evelyne Ily), who believe that Mama Efe too slavishly adheres to tradition.

To be perfectly honest, I’m not the right audience for Mami Wata. Obasi’s overarching thematic ideas are clear: progress is not better because it is progress. We can’t lose tradition and it should take precedence of progress. But I think the film’s generation of a binary – one which it reinforces in a brutal dichotomy where a set of ruthless, rapacious male warlords embody progress – is one that I have a hard time getting behind. Culturally speaking, Obasi’s assertions are ones which stem from a world where cultural traditions have to battle global assimilation. Yet, I wonder why it cannot be both, why Mami Wata’s will cannot be to ensure that people have modern healthcare and traditional faith. Obasi shoots the film gorgeously in black and white, and I imagine that some will enjoy its ideas. Ultimately, I did not buy them, but I respect some of them.