The date of the red carpet premiere of the much talked about movie ‘Elmina’ could not have been any better than yesterday for me. After years of studying Law, I finally said goodbye to UEL School of Law on Thursday with no idea as to where to catch the fun I have always wanted.
With the weather getting bad, an indoor entertainment was the most excellent to consider. I decided to kick start my freedom from books with the red carpet premiere of ‘Elmina’.
As a result of experience, I have somehow come to undesirably accept that African events-no matter where it is organized will always start late. With this in mind, I drove through the cold winds of North London to Cineworld, Wood Green around 9:45 pm when the advertised start time was 9pm. I was certainly not going to fall for the time wasting BS this time, I said to myself.
When we eventually got to the place and hanged around for almost 30mins without any sign of appearance of the various advertised celebrities, I knew I had been beaten to the game once again.
This time, I could careless about my time being wasted because none of my guests consistently bothered me about when the movie was going to start. They were somehow being compensated with glasses of champagne and other drinks courtesy of the sponsors the organizers managed to pull in.
The crowd was positive, sociable and had a lot of energy which you could easily spot on their faces- most of them seemed happy with the compensation they were receiving for the waste of their precious time…LOL. No amount of alcohol can deny me my right to check my watch though…
After waiting on those drinks, the legendary Akorfa Edjeani Asiedu and Ama Konadu Abebrese made their way through for the usual celebrity appearance photo shoot. The forever young Akorfa Asiedu was looking beautiful, more like an African teenage prom queen.
Ama K. Abebrese came in with her fabulous sense of fashion, styled by the artistic Marian Kihogo; she wore a dress by Virgos Lounge, a pair of Christian Louboutin heels and kept a simple but glamorous necklace made by Ghanaian fashion designer-Anita Quansah.
After these appearances, we still had to wait for John Appea and others to show up. By the time the light from the projector was cast, it was nearly half eleven.
Having had a lot to drink, patrons were well chilled out and as soon as the movie started, the laughter rolled in as the crowd caught the various humorous aspects of the movie.
I did not expect a movie such as ‘Elmina’ which robustly tackles various societal injustices, exploitation of local Ghanaians and the degradation of the beautiful scenery of Ghana to be intertwined with comedy. Probably, it can pass for a satire!
As much as I loved the fusion of comedy into the principles that the movie sought to teach, some of the lines were utterly unnecessary. For instance, the line where the chief threw in the word ‘Fuck’ was demeaning to his prestigious status as an overriding ‘Chief’.
For me, ‘Elmina’ carried 3 fundamental stories. It courageously took up a challenging theme of how African leaders exploit their very own loyal subjects. It also tried to dive into where the stool of convenience should be placed when imminent development and prosperity will have a detrimental effect on our future existence.
Thirdly and above all, ‘Elmina’ colourful displays the Ghanaian culture. I do not think a full documentary can even bring you to realize the beauty and glamour that hide in our Ghanaian culture, the remarkable water bodies, the perfect landscapes and the friendly but repulsive communities that exist side by side. Anyone who appreciates culture, art and humour will love ‘Elmina’.
Now this is where I need answers…At a time patrons were at the climax of the enjoyment, the movie being shown on the big screen started playing up. You know what happens when you have a scratched VCD at home and you force to play it in your 1945 VCD player- it keeps pausing and moving every 2 seconds. Yeap, that is what happened last night…
Eventually, the movie went off and we had to wait for nearly 20minutes to see pictures on the big screen again. And when they finally brought it back, they took it too far back… Geez! That was the biggest killer of the night.