A golden floppy disk becomes a prophetic device through which a young Ghanaian girl living in England, Ama, rediscovers her African identity. She learns its contents at the office where her mother cleans. The disk, through magic realism and by way of ancestors, warns her of the dangers of forgetting one's heritage.
Ama: An African Voyage of Discovery
Canada
Canada
fuck man. this was so good. so surrealist. such a fan.
Ghanaian family generations, and their ancient old traditions and custom, intertwine with 90's modernity in the African diaspora of the U.K. with some dramatic and interesting results, where the product of its time and technical aesthetic, adds another layer of question to its floppy disk, and Magic Realism mission.
"Its back to Africa innit"
As ancestral messaging through computer channels, breaksdowns the roots of oral traditions, cautioning a family about tragedy and prophetic disaster, within their present drama.
Salt maybe bad for rebirthing we hear at the dinner table, but getting down to the current sounds at fashion shows, does liven up the mood, it is Afrocentrism chaneling its Afrofuturism.
Don’t you believe your own ancestors?
- Not when they speak through computers. Stock exchange pronouncing my death?
black british sci fi from the 90s my beloved!! this really moved me, especially the aspects about growing up/grief/ancestry and also visually really had so many things i love. really excited it's streaming on channel 4 <3
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
BFI restoration and Q&A with director and lead actress.
Unexpectedly well written and the anachronistic restoration really adds to the surreal (magic-realism) feeling in the film. There are some stock-footage looking HD-digital clips intercut into the film to great effect. It feels as though the characters, limited in their old grainy aged world are able to find and connect to and live in, through brief glimpses, a world beyond their own— that of the future, i.e. our present. The most prominent example of this is using modern footage of the Grenfell towers (reconstructed) with green hearts on it, it retrofits the themes the film was originally about with modern examples. Like when the Simpsons intentionally predicts the future, expect here…
