New Ghanaian film, ‘Children of The Mountain’ selected for Tribeca Film Festival

Earlier this month, the Tribeca Film Festival announced 55 of their 101 selections from 6626 films submitted and it includes  a feature debut film by a female Ghanaian director  called “Children of The Mountain” (USA/Ghana).

The writer, director, producer is Priscilla Anany. Priscilla was born in Ghana and emigrated to the US in 2003. She studied Filmmaking at the University of North Carolina and a masters in Communication at NYU. It is her first full feature film having done mainly short films in the past.  There is one in particular, called “Korji (Hospitals)” which was selected for the Cannes Film festival 2013.

This is her first full length feature film and there are aspects of the film that make it somewhat of a rarity. Firstly the subject matter; A woman who has a child with cerebral palsy and a cleft lip then believes she can get healing for this child. She wonders from disappointment to disappointment trying to leverage her meagre earnings as a yam trader in the market. The film is set in Accra, Ghana and also a remote village of the Volta region of the country by Lake Volta.

From the look of the trailer this should make for some beautiful scenery. Next the film is in Twi and Ewe with English subtitles, and no we are not talking Kumawood here. It stars a fresh Ghanaian/Nigerian actor called Rukiyat Masud who has done films like “Chelsea”, “Black Beauty” and “Sorrow of Madness”. She nowadays lives and does a lot of work in Nigeria and is not as well known in Ghana. However she is so ably supported by some industry heavyweights like Akofa Edjeani, Adjetey Anang, Grace Omaboe (Maame Dokunu), Dzifa Glikpoe, William Addo (Akpatseh) and Bex. One can just imagine the level of acting to expect from an ensemble like this.

“childreN of the mountaiN” premiere’s in Ghana on July 1^st , Republic Day