home
|
about
|
news
|
contents
|
gossip
|
photographs
|
venues
|
brighton
|
dublin
|
edinburgh
|
film
|
features
|
interviews
|
awards
|
fashion
|
recipes
|
no more drinks
|
newsletter
|
links
|
contact
Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
The Home Coming
Verdict: He thought he had a house in Africa
London - March 04
Feature Film - 82 minutes - (country of origin) Ghana 2004
The Home Coming is a feature from the new wave of Ghana cinema. By the Ghanaian writer Ishmael Norman, it's a wry, moving, and ultimately optimistic look at exactly how badly the story of the prodigal son works out in real life.
It's 1996, grizzle-haired lawyer Dr Peter Baffour's persuaded to return to Ghana to marry his pert and patient fiancé Savanna. He's had 20 years in America, living a charmed life and sending money home to his younger brother to build him a house. And that's the second revelation.
The first is being ambushed, carjacked and robbed on the way from Accra airport. Never mind, the house is almost ready - his brother's sent him the photographs.
Sadly the photos are of another house. His brother's spent the cash and the house is barely started. The shipping container with his goods from America arrives empty, courtesy of Ghanaian customs. Peter Baffour gets the feeling everyone's only interested in him for his money - with his mother head of the list. It's a bitter awakening.
He's responded to a barrage of pleas from family and government officials 'to come back home and help develop mother Ghana'. But his welcome is to be defrauded, cheated and reviled for 'being an American'.
It's a rocky homecoming that leads to blackmail, violence, sickness and, ultimately, a sense of resolution. Because, finally, Peter Baffour's stolid endurance allows a spirit of acceptance - on all sides - to prevail.
The Home Coming features a strong central performance from Ishmael Norman. It's a portrayal with authority - the film's based on his own experiences. Truth often doesn't make perfect fiction, but there are cunning plot-strands woven through the storyline, and the events are so extreme (and bizarre), that - coupled with Ishmael Norman's subtle and engaging performance - it works. There's a fascination too, in wondering exactly what awful surprise lurks with each new dawn.
Amina Tondé evokes long-suffering fiancé Savanna with grace and charm. It's a striking performance, presenting with emotional impact a Savanna who at different times can be distant, engaged, unsure, resolute - and, in one of the film's pivotal scenes, disarmingly romantic.
A highlight is a magnificent cameo from George Williams as an outstandingly grouchy interviewer. A managing director who stayed in Ghana, his initial charm to a Peter Baffour desperate for a job suddenly pivots into visceral rage at his own lost opportunities. Like much of the film, it's a scene partly humorous, but with an undertow of profound pathos - for both characters.
Dzifa Agbetepey is a witty (and screechy) prostitute, uncomfortably closely connected to the family. In a fine and gifted performance, David Ericksen plays the wily, but essentially kind-hearted, building foreman - ultimately an unlikely but effective Cupid.
Mrs Olivia Dodoo is the mother Peter Baffour most likely wishes he'd never had - Mrs Olivia Dodoo's witty performance could start an epidemic of matricide. Nana Akyaa Owusu gives a strident and touching performance as self-harming lesbian Nancy Sam, wrestling against deeply-entrenched taboos. Louisa Arku gives a fine performance as Angel Akosah. Vida Appiah-Kubi delivers an evocative vignette as Dr Baffour's secretary.
Shot to independent film production values, with variable sound quality, The Home Coming currently runs at 82 minutes. There's room for a judicious edit to the 60-minute mark, some of the scenes lasting a fraction too long. The ending lacks the pace of the story, and could be reworked from the present content to sharpen its effect.
These however are minor criticisms of a film that at one level is a rattling good yarn, at another a sharp endictment of corruption and greed at the heart of contempory Ghanaian society, at another a story of the all-too-common disenchantment facing expatriates returning home, and at perhaps its most effective, a love story of gentle charm.
