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Showing @ Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Sat 27 Oct only

Emmanuel Apea Jr / Ghana / 2010 / 104 min

Elmina signifies a substantial project between Anglo-American and African art. It involves New Yorker Doug Fishbone playing the part of a farmer in rural Ghana, facing threats against his marriage, witchcraft, loss of honour, but also earning respect and loyalty. He stands up for the local people after their Chief allows a Chinese oil company to invade the farmlands to build a refinery and director Emmanuel Apea Jr experiments with themes of globalisation tackling mystic and spiritual customs.

The clearest issues raised in Elmina are about cross-cultural representation and the defence of African land against industrial expansion. Once the Chief has been corrupted by the Chinese oil company, it takes Ato, played unobtrusively by a White actor, to speak out and protect the townspeople. This allows Apea Jr to subvert roles in Ghanaian society and suggest that concerns surrounding freedom and sovereignty are more important than race. The delivery of these ideas isn’t always successful; the film’s sound recording, editing and pacing all lack quality and are poorly presented, and the melodrama at its heart is overplayed. But it is one of the more interesting explorations of White, western approaches to land and industry in an environment uniting with traditional Ghanaian life.

Showing as part of Africa in Motion Film Festival 2012.

Follow Andrew on Twitter @ajlatimer.