Sankofa

Composite Score: 83.9

Starring: Kofi Ghanaba, Oyafunmike Ogunlano, Alexandra Duah, Nick Medley, Mutabaruka, Afemo Omilami, Reggie Carter, Mzuri, Jim Faircloth, and Stanley Michelson

Director: Haile Gerima

Writer: Haile Gerima

Genres: Drama, History

MPAA Rating: Not Rated

Box Office: $2.20 million worldwide

Why should you Watch This Film?

                Sankofa is Haile Gerima’s film about an American model who is transported into one of her enslaved ancestors while on a location shoot at the Cape Coast Castle in Ghana. The film explores the concept of “Sankofa” - an Akan word for seeking/gaining power and wisdom from the past – in the way that it portrays Mona’s journey through her ancestors’ lives as a sort of awakening and enlightenment. Ethiopian filmmaker Haile Gerima accomplishes the truly difficult feat of portraying the Maafa through historical drama without sensationalizing any of its aspects. This is not the trauma-porn slave films of the 2000s and 2010s; it is an artistic look back at the experience of slavery with the goal of reconnecting black people across the world to their African roots through the catharsis of reflection.

Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?

                Full disclosure, this film was not made for me, as a white American man. That doesn’t mean that I can’t take some edification from watching it, but I am also aware that I am not Gerima’s target audience for his film. The message of not abandoning one’s ancestral roots is one that can still resonate with many audiences, but the portrayal of these particular roots is certainly going to be more impactful to an audience of African descent. I really do think that this film is an excellent piece of cinema and a prime example of quality filmmaking from a great African filmmaker; I just struggle to find the right words to say to do justice to this film as someone who is so much an outsider to most of its themes and content.

So wait, why should you Watch This Film?

                If you are someone who is relatively unfamiliar with African cinema, and particularly that of sub-Saharan Africa, I can think of few other films that could give so strong an introduction to the region as Sankofa. The film does such an excellent job of portraying the painful memories that the European slave trade left on the people of sub-Saharan Africa (especially those near the west coast) in a way that never feels defeated or overcome. It embraces the hurt of its history without excusing those who caused it, walking that fine line in its present-day and historical narratives. Gerima’s blend of realism, spirituality, and historical fiction creates a truly moving story that puts a particular portion of culture on display that is not always seen in mainstream filmmaking.

                The performances of Oyafunmike Ogunlano, Alexandra Duah, Nick Medley, and Afemo Omilami go a long way in accomplishing Gerima’s goals of celebrating and reconnecting with ancestors through their intensely human and down-to-earth portrayals of enslaved people working a plantation. Ogunlano pulls double duty as the model Mona and her enslaved ancestor Shola, a house slave on the Lafayette sugar plantation. Her ability to portray pain, panic, and an almost childlike sense of interest in the stories of her fellow workers’ pasts makes her the ideal candidate to be the audience’s stand-in as the story unfolds around her. Omilami does an admirable job in his role as Noble Ali, playing the conflicted slave boss in such a way that we are reminded of the fear that caused so much of the pain that chattel slavery inflicted. Medley’s role as the mixed-race slave boss Joe, son of the wisened Nunu and an unknown white rapist, is perhaps the most complex character in the film – brainwashed by the Catholic missionary, Father Raphael, to reject not only the religion of his mother and his fellow enslaved people, but the people themselves for their “heathen ways”. His tragic disconnect from everyone else on the plantation plays out in powerful fashion as he seeks to know himself and his place in the world. Finally, Duah’s portrayal of Nunu, one of the few people on the plantation who remembers the ways of their ancestors, gives life to Gerima’s message, as she is the only enslaved person who feels fully alive, not because she has accepted her enslaved status, but because she refuses to accept it, holding strong thanks to her attachment to her heritage.

                The characters and actors at the center of Gerima’s tale of African heritage and its inextricable ties to the impacts of the slave trade make Sankofa a necessary and powerful entry in the Greatest Films of All Time. Its heavily targeted message will give some variance to its individual impact, but the filmmaking and stories that it portrays should be moving enough for any audience to take something away. It is currently available to stream on Netflix for anyone looking to give it a watch in the near future.