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A Ghanaian comedy film set the tone for this year’s Afrikamera, the festival that showcases current feature and documentary films from Africa in Berlin. Keteke, the debut production of Peter Kofi Sedufia, kicked the 5-day festival off on Thursday (7 November).
The film, a witty look-back at the inadequate transport infrastructure of the early 1980s Ghana, was well received by the full house that graced the opening of Afrikamera 2019.
Screened in the presence of its director, Keteke, which tells the story of the involuntary odyssey of the heavily pregnant Atswei and her husband Boi, boasts beautiful dialogue, spectacular cinematography and creative sequence. The audience was very impressed and they showed it in their frequent applause throughout the 71-minute showing. Several attendees whom this writer spoke to after the screening have only praises and admiration for the film, especially for its originality.
In an after-show interactive session with the audience, Sedufia, a young filmmaker from Ghana, said though Keteke is set in Ghana, it was inspired by a trip he made to Finland. He also revealed that he financed the film, directed and produced it. Shot on an abandoned rail track in 10 days, Keteke due to its unique style is bound to go places. And the signs are already there as its director has already received an offer from Netflix.
In his brief speech before the festival was declared open, Musa Sawadogo, the director, spoke about the challenges of organizing the festival every year. He talked about the difficulties of finding enough sponsors to cover the costs of staging the event, which is in its 12th year in the German capital city.
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The festival continues until 11 November with a focus on films from Lusophone Africa, that is former Portuguese colonies – Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique.
The festival’s venue is the prestigious Kino Arsenal at the Postdamerplatz in the centre of Berlin.
Femi Awoniyi
For the full programme of AFRIKAMERA 2019, visit: http://www.afrikamera.de
