Stranger Says:

I was really surprised to learn that this film, which is about a cosmopolitan Ghanaian medical student who has to return to his village to deal with his father’s funeral, was not made by Ghanaian but American-based filmmakers, TW Pittman and Kelly Daniela Norris (not African-sounding names). What the two clearly show with this work is you don’t have to be from Ghana to make a good film about Ghanaians. Nakom is not anthropological or stiff or weird but straightforward and charming. It also has lots of cultural details. Indeed, sometimes you have to ignore the plot and look at what’s going on in the background: the lively chickens, the dreary donkeys, the rickety bicycles, the sun-baked huts, the thin trees in the distance, the network of dirt paths. I also loved watching how these Ghanaians eat. (CHARLES MUDEDE)