Rise

Rise (2022) is a sports drama based on the Antetokounmpo family story — watch online on iFILM, directed by Akin Omotoso. Charles and Vera left Nigeria for Athens with no papers, no Greek, and no legal right to work. For nearly two decades they kept five children fed and housed under constant threat of deportation, surviving on street vending and refusal to quit.

Three of their sons — Giannis, Kostas, and Thanasis — spent their early years selling trinkets near the Acropolis before being picked up by a local basketball club. Dayo Okeniyi and Yetide Badaki play the parents without sentimentalising either the poverty or the perseverance; the film earns its emotion through accumulated small details rather than a single rousing speech. What became of Giannis — NBA champion, two-time league MVP — the film barely touches: the focus stays on the years that made that outcome possible.

Released on Disney+ in 2022, it is the kind of biographical drama that respects its audience enough to skip the triumphant montage and sit instead with the grind. Stream Rise (2022) online on iFILM.