Caller ID: Unknown (2023)
★½ — Caller ID: Unknown (2023)
Caller ID: Unknown arrives out of Cameroon's modest but determined independent film scene, produced through the combined efforts of NOMAD Est.2000 and The ADO Foundation. Director Konrad M. Defang sets his story against the backdrop of the Anglophone Crisis, the ongoing conflict between Cameroon's francophone-majority government and the English-speaking regions of the North West and South West that escalated sharply from 2017 onwards, displacing hundreds of thousands of civilians. It is a rare thing to see that specific, largely underreported crisis used as the canvas for a narrative feature, and the production is notable simply for existing, given how thin the infrastructure for scripted Cameroonian cinema remains at an international level.
A-Z World Movie Tour Cameroon FIRT LETTERBOXD REVIEW FOR THIS FILM Oh dear. Caller ID: Unknown is trying to be a harrowing war drama, but keeps getting distracted by a cringe-worthy love story, dodgy CGI, and subtitles that give up halfway through the film. Let’s start with the premise: Nkwenti, fresh off surviving a rebel attack that killed her family and torched her village in SW Cameroon, finds a phone on a dead soldier and starts dialing random numbers. Somehow, she reaches Essono, a guy in NW Cameroon who’s about as prepared for her trauma as I am for a bear attack. Against all logic, they embark on a phone romance (complete with giggles, flirty hair-twirling, and zero acknowledgment of her dead parents). Meanwhile, Essono’s wife gets exactly zero lines, as if she’s just a background NPC in his life simulator. The film can’t decide what it wants to be: Survival thriller? There’s some tense jungle scenes where Nkwenti dodges rebels, but then she’ll stop immediately post-pursuit to lie on leaves and whisper, “Your voice makes my heart dance.” Romantic drama? Essono abandons his job, wife, and entire life to trek into the bush and “find” her. Sure, why not. War film? The finale features rebels defeated by what looks like a Microsoft Paint explosion. I genuinely laughed out loud. Some issues: Tonal whiplash. One minute Nkwenti’s crawling through mud to escape gunfire, the next she’s giggling about Essono’s “deep voice.” It’s like Schindler’s List ending with a conga line. Subtitles. On Amazon Prime, they gave up translating anything but Cameroon Pidgin. When characters spoke French or local languages, the subs just said “speaks foreign language.” Thanks, I hate that. Special effects. The final showdown looked like it was edited on a 2003 laptop. Explosions are just a stock photo of fire slapped onto a tree. The positives: The scenery! Cameroon’s landscapes are stunning with lush jungles, misty mountains. So typical of these low budget films is the great scenery. Nkwenti’s resilience is compelling… until the script forgets her trauma to focus on her new boyfriend’s midlife crisis. Would I recommend it? It’s a fascinating artefact of Cameroonian cinema trying to juggle too many ideas and dropping most of them in a puddle. A baffling, disjointed mess with moments of accidental brilliance. 1.5 stars for ambition and scenery… and the Photoshop finale that broke my brain.
Rating: ★½ | Year: 2023 | Watched: 2025-06-03
Where to watch (UK)
Stream: Amazon Prime Video · Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Rent: Amazon Video
Buy: Amazon Video
Physical: Amazon UK
Affiliate disclosure: Movies With Macca may earn a small commission on purchases or subscriptions started via these links. It costs you nothing extra.
Related on Movies With Macca
More from the 2020s: Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025) · The Long Walk (2025) · Americana (2023)
More drama: Viy (1967) · Wonder (2017) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Beautiful Boy (2018)
