Accraventures of November: Premiere of "Sinking Sands"

Yet another Saturday night was spent at the theATAH this month. Only this time, I was attending the fancy premiere of "Sinking Sands" - the hottest new movie on the Ghanaian film scene. Please don't fact check that statement.

I found out about Sinking Sands from a billboard I happen to pass on my trotro ride to work. The film's professional-looking poster definitely stood out amidst the usual Ghanaian film posters that one finds crookedly shellacked against stone walls. I did a little google searching on the film and found out that Sinking Sands is the highest budget movie to have ever been produced in Ghana!

Interestingly enough, the producer/writer/director, Leila Djansi secured this $1 million (US) budget through fundraising and corporate sponsorship. Pretty darn impressive if you ask me... but not as impressive as the film itself! (hey-o! lazy segue...)

I have to admit, I had... expectations... walking into the theatre. I will not call them low expectations, because I have definitely enjoyed a few Ghanaian movies, particularly when they play on the STC buses on long journeys. However, the Ghanaian films I've seen follow in the tradition of "Nollywood" films (Nollywood is the booming film industry in Nigeria) which can sometimes be... well.. a bit silly. Oh... and loud. VERY VERY loud.

So, I walked into the National Theatre expecting to see a dramatic love story with the usual key ingredients: betrayal, cheating, shouting, some kind of witchcraft and a romantic scene where the two conflicting parties make up. However, I was shocked when I saw this:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R56dsmLOFsc

Sinking Sands has definitely "pull[ed] some firsts for the industry" as claimed in the film's program, just one item in our press bag of goodies! The film was shot on Red Camera Technology, one of the highest quality video cameras available today, and according to the program, "the first feature film in some years to go back to using set design [in Ghana]." The film also cast an American actor, Jimmy Jean Louis, in one of the main roles. The crew itself was also a mix of Ghanaians and foreigners.

But it wasn't just the technology that appealed to me, the whole movie carried a Hollywood aesthetic - from the intimate performances by the actors, to the soundtrack, to the cinematography. It was really impressive! And this is not to say that Ghanaian films that aren't modelled on a more Western, Hollywood style aren't impressive. Rather, what I find impressive is that this director was able to go outside the norm of her native industry and adopt an artistic style that's pretty darn hard to pull off without prior training!

Here is a synopsis of Sinking Sands from the program:

"Jimah and Pabi are a match made in heaven until an accident leaves Jimah with a scar that alters his physical appearance and turns him into a monster - figuratively"

Pause... I like that they clarified that Jimah turns in a "figurative" monster. Continue...

"Endless days of wife battery become a part of their relationship. Pabi has a chance to flee but her guilt makes her stay, hoping and praying that Jimah will change and life will go back to normal. Her fear of living alone without a family is a weakness Jimah knows she has and he makes every effort to capitalize on it. But how long will Pabi endure? At what cost will she buy her freedom?"

The synopsis doesn't sell the movie very effectively. So again, I walked in with... expectations. However, the narrative unfolded really nicely, the acting was believable and honest, we could empathize with the characters (even the figurative monster) and well, most importantly, the movie kept your interest. You really couldn't tell what was going to happen next.

Another thing that Djansi should be proud of is that she addressed taboo issues head on and didn't censor anything. In fact, one of the strangest things I have ever experience in Ghana happened while I was watching Sinking Sands. At one point in the film, there is a brutal rape scene - it was quite graphic and realistic. The audience reaction? roaring laughter!! And believe me, this wasn't uncomfortable or nervous laughter. This was like knee-slapping, belly-aching laughter. Needless to say, the eight of us foreigners in the crowd looked at each other completely dumbstruck by what was going on... and eventually the laughter became contagious.

Seeking an explanation from a Ghanaian, I asked a coworker about the reaction of this rape scene. She said that the laughter was likely due to the fact that sex is not really something Ghanaians talk about openly, so when it appears on the big screen, in front of a crowd, people get very embarrassed.

Okay, so maybe it was nervous laughter. But it really didn't appear that way!

My coworker tried to explain it a little bit more. If any of these people were watching the movie alone, they wouldn't laugh at the rape scene. But once you add a few more people to the mix, people start to get self-conscious and embarrassed about the presence of sex on screen.

"That's kind of like the reaction I had when I watched a few episodes of Sex and the City with my father."

Thankfully, I kept this analogy in my head.

So, once again, Ghanaian audiences have added some spice to the experience of watching a film or a play. All in all, the movie was great - a huge leap for the Ghanaian Film Industry. Not sure when the film's set to hit theatres or DVD but if it comes out before I return to Canada, I'll be sure to grab a copy.

And We're Back! Theatre Review: Terms of Divorce

My apologies for the blogging hiatus... I know my absence has thoroughly disappointed millions.

And November has been such an eventful month! So I will slowly catch everyone up on the action packed Accra adventures, or “accraventures” as I like to call them... or rather, as I will call them from this point on.

Alas, the accraventures have been carried out at an increasingly slower pace this month as the heat and the sun become much more intense. The HEAT - it’s all expats can talk about these days. I hardly have anything else to say to people other than “geeze, it’s getting a lot hotter these days, huh?” To which they eagerly agree and we then enter our awkward quest for something else to talk about. If the conversation turns to sports, I plan my escape route - “is that an injured goat I hear in the distance?” - Otherwise, I generally welcome any other topic quite happily.

Commentary about the heat is not limited to expats, though. Ghanaians share their two cents about the weather. 

Example 1: “This African sun, it is too hot! How can we do anything? Ah!”

- My host mother on a scorcher of a day during a blackout.

Example 2: “It is raaiiiining today! Can you imagine what it will be like during the rainy season?!"

- My soaked coworker, upon entering the office during a rain storm that caused floods all over Accra.

So those may be the only two interesting comments that come to mind right now but I swear I hear more complaints! It’s the equivalent of hearing Canadians complain about the winter year after year after year as though every time November rolls around we’re surprised that fall still turns into winter. Every year. Leaves to snow... I don’t understand.  

Okay, enough about the cold, I can delay having to think about it for another month. Back to our eventful November!

Well the most important event of November was of course, my birthday. Birthday celebrations were slightly muted by the impending deadlines for the funding proposals I was working on. However, I did manage to celebrate the occasion with a visit to the theatre... which I choose to pronounce “TheATAH” for no particular reason other than it simply feels right.

I was accompanied by two lovely gents - one Neil, from England, and one Hafen, from the US. We stopped briefly at Koala, one of the few grocery stores where westerns can pay insulting prices for their comfort foods. We dished out the equivalent of the mean household income of an American middle class family for a bag of Doritos and a can of Pringles. What a steal!

We hopped in a taxi and made our way to the National Theatre to watch the hit theatrical romantic comedy “Terms of Divorce” by renowned Ghanaian playwright James Ebo Whyte. 

The house was packed! This was pretty shocking as the play wasn’t cheap... 25 Cedis a ticket. However, after having seen a few Ghanaian plays, I knew that the audience reactions alone are worth the price of admission. The best part about the audiences? No dirty looks whilst rustling our chip bags and crunching away on our snacks.

Terms of Divorce tells the story of Ralph and Ethel, a couple in the final stages of a messy divorce. At the opening of the play, we learn that Ralph and Ethel have been in a vicious tug-of-war over the divorce settlement for close to two years now. The process has been made that much more difficult because the couple have enlisted lawyers Michael and Baaba, who are themselves, bitter divorcees! 

We quickly learn that a court date is soon approaching where Ralph and Ethel will be able to sign off a final agreement, once and for all - authorizing their divorce before a judge. But before they do this, they must visit some kind of marriage counsellor who will rubber stamp the agreement.

The counsellor is an older, cheerful man married to a mad woman whom he adores passionately. He warns Ralph, Ethel and their lawyers that his wife will frequently interrupt their proceedings with odd hallucinations. He tells them that his wife becomes very upset at the mere suggestion that she is mad, so if everyone could be so kind as to accommodate her hallucinations and play along with her madness, that would be greatly appreciated. So as the counseling proceeds, we are met with bizarre and often hilarious intervals where the counsellor’s cooky wife serves invisible tea and snacks or alerts everyone about murderers surrounding the house. In an effort to appease both the counsellor and his wife, the group plays along and drinks from their make believe tea cups and kills the murderers with their pretend guns.

The counsellor’s devotion and love for his wife, who proves to be quite a handful, eventually inspires Ralph to re-consider the divorce with Ethel. And after about 10 more argument scenes between the couple. they finally decide that they shouldn’t throw away their 20 year relationship over a couple of mishaps. I must say it was a bit of a shock to hear the couple had been married 20 years as the actors looked like they were in their early thirties... but who am I to deny two 12 year olds from making a lifelong commitment to each other?

Eventually, Baaba and Michael, follow suit, clarify the misunderstanding that let to their marriage’s dissolution and decide to re-marry.

The moral of the story: divorce is for quitters. 

The play was definitely entertaining but went in some strange directions. For example, about two-thirds of the way through, the play suddenly turned into musical and introduced fantastical theatrical elements like smoke machines and angels (who doubled as backup dancers). Some of the numbers performed would be familiar to anyone who has seen a movie trailer for a romantic comedy in the last century like James Blunt’s “Goodbye My Lover” or Shania Twain’s “You’re Still the One I Want.” Just a WEEE bit cliché.

Another drawback, and a complaint I have about most Ghanaian theatre I’ve seen thus far, is the length of the play - nearly 3 hours. I mean, if I were watching a staged rendition of War and Peace translated into Twi, this length might be acceptable. But the play was marred with repetition and redundancies that lengthened scenes unnecessarily. The pace of the play also could have been tightened by eliminating actions and dialogue that detracted from the narrative train. 

Other than these details, (oh, and the audio levels for the mics... let’s refrain from using max volume when your actors are screaming at each other for the majority of the play, thanks)  I was quite pleased with the show! And as expected, the audience played their role just as well as the actors - contributing their “oh!”s and “ah!”s with conviction and enthusiasm. One moment in particular sparked roaring laughter and heckling from the audience. Ralph and Ethel, now googly-eyed and lusting after each other, are dressed in their “make-up sex” costumes - towels. They flirt with each other, indicating that they are ready for another round in the bedroom and eagerly ascend the stairs to their love chamber. Just as they reach the final step, Ralph’s towel falls off!! Fortunately for Ralph, he was wearing boxers under his towel. But believe me, the presence of underpants did not hinder the audience’s riotous reaction.

The best part about that moment? I GOT IT ON VIDEO!! Too bad the internet just ain't strong enough for me to upload it.

All in all, a great night at the theATAH topped off by pizza and wine at my favourite joint. Yay birthday in Ghana!