Sankofa

I saw this film in Washington, DC in 1995 and have since purchased the tape. It is a blast of African pride and anti-slavery vigor from Ethiopian-born director Haile Gerima. Gerima is a professor at Howard University in DC and his films confront the issues of race, integration, and violence in Africa and America. "Sankofa" is available through Mypheduh films (Gerima's production company) in DC.

The story begins and ends on a small island in West Africa, where 'Mona', an African-American fashion model, is in the present day. The middle of the film consists of Mona, through magic realism, being transported back to a slave plantation in 18th-century America. For those of you who wonder about what it was like to be a slave back then, under those barbaric and intolerable conditions, this is your chance. "Sankofa" is not for the faint of heart. Yet its violent scenes are never overdone, and the film's final 'message' is a positive one.

It's a shame that this film at this time has an IMDB "rating" of only 5 or so, because 31 of the 44 votes cast have been "10"s, including mine. I guess this film has alienated a few people, but most powerful films do that. A very important film from a gifted and underrated director.

This movie best depicted conditions of slavery that I have ever seen. Hearing so many things in books and from school teachers dillutes the mind a little and makes it feel very mild from the way they speak. I was especially in awe how they made it so real yet didn't even hardly show blood at all. I watched it a second time to make sure; it doesn't!

If you are going to watch this on your own accord (i.e.- not in a class where you can't get another copy), PLEASE watch it more than once. I've heard this so many times about so many other movies, but it's awesomly true in this case! 'You can not POSSIBLY get everything w/ one viewing'.

I'm off to write a paper about this movie, but I think I must rent it once more before I get done with the paper to get even more info; there's just that much.

Most older movies and many movies in general like "Song of the South" and "Gone With the Wind" depicted Slavery as an okay instuition. In those films Slaves are depicted as Happy in that institiution, but in this film you see how Slaves really felt. Also you can see their humanity and knowledge where in older films they were depicted as ignorant.

This film is really, really neat for an independent film, and it shows a real slave castle in Gahana. Sankofa is a term that... Well, get the movie and you will learn more about it.

It does a good job of taking you through the film from a slaves point of view. The film uses that interesting "lens" to illustrate just how wrong slavery was. It also gives insight into the family unit among slaves, which may explain the black family today in America. Understanding the history of black families during slavery may be used to help understand the black family today in it's struggles to have cohesiveness.

Na mate, in my usual style, I won't touch on the plot, characters etc .. This is about me and 3 brothers who went to see this film. Some of us were West African, some Horn African (Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia etc), some Caribbean etc.

These usual jovial, come let we make jokes, guys went to see this film. Throughout the entire film we did not look at each other ONCE, at the end we avoided eye contact as we filed out. My jaw was aching from how hard I must have had it clenched to prevent it from opening and releasing floogates of emotions. Those emotions... man, that film showed me just how much pain there is in us, which we have not faced up to (before we were not allowed, but now we can if we are Lion enough to). I'd like to say we all got a wake up call from that film, and went on to find out more about the middle passage which was whitewashed outta of our schooling. But no, interestingly enough unlike the film's shallow model who does face up to the enslavement past, and grows from it. Some of my friends did the opposite and remain just like the model was like in the begining of the movie. And After watching the film -- again and again -- I can understand why.

This movie is so complex. Never before had an African writer/director ventured into such unknown territory. This movie is incredible! A black fashion model, who is posing for a fashion shoot amidst the beautiful scenery of Africa, is transported back in time through an African slave trade castle. Great cinematography and artistic creativity. This movie is not only entertainment, it is an experience!