By choosing to tell a relatively small story about slavery in the Americas, Ethiopian writer-director Haile Gerima is perhaps better able to evoke slavery's horrors than the makers of grand epics like television's "Roots." SANKOFA succeeds, on both a personal and a political level, because
of the immediacy with which it conveys human suffering.
In contemporary West Africa, a traditional drummer invokes the Spirit of the Dead and asks the audience to listen. We see Mona (Oyafunmike Ogunlano), a fashion model, being photographed at an ancient fort which was once used as a dungeon for slaves. An older man accosts Mona, compelling her to
go "back to your past." L...
Released:
1994
Rated:
NR
Length:
124 mins