SriBuO Release of the Week - Checkmate - A Shirley Frimpong Manso Film

If you have been following the Ghana movie scene closely, you will know that Shirley Frimpong Manso's most recent movie, 6 Hours to Christmas recently opened in Accra at the national theater - 6 Hours To Christmas. We are however bringing you Shirley's movie before 6 hours - Checkmate. This got a fairly good reception in Ghana when it was released and it is nice to see it finally going fully international.

So first off, here is a synopsis of the movie straight from the movie website: "Kwame has made all the right moves in his life; a good job, a beautiful devoted wife, an adorable child, and an impending promotion as a senior customs officer at the airport. But what seems like a typical guys hang out on a weekend away from home in the company of his new friend and mentor, Kiki, turns out to be the one wrong move Kwame makes. After losing a game of Chess, he succumbs to a bet to seduce the attractive, sexy Caroline.

A few weeks later, the consequences of a dirty forgotten weekend pops up in Kwame's life threatening to destroy everything he so dearly loves. But the games are just beginning when he realizes that Caroline's demand for his love is nothing compared to the demands of a drug lord who will do anything to get Kwame's assistance in smuggling drugs out of the country. With his entire life hanging on a thread, Kwame must try to win the game or risk losing everything."



So as usual, the movie production quality is exactly what you would expect from Sparrow Productions ... extremely high quality HD. The acting is also superb. Senanu, Naa Ashorkor, Nadia and Ekow all played quite believable roles in this one. The story was also interesting. Customs officer launching a campaign, businessman who deals in cocaine ... these are all characters that we can relate to or have heard about as Ghanaians.

One thing I did find a bit weird was the threading of the "Chess" theme throughout the whole movie. I mean, checkmate is a chess term but it can be used in other contexts. But then again Ghanaians by now are used to how Shirley doesn't mind blending in "brofu" themes if they will aid in her plot. The script also sounds umm ... a bit formal ? Yet it is natural enough that you don't think the actors are in 19th Century England. Believe it or not, you would think some Ghanaian movies were written using King James Bible English!

As with Shirley's other movies since "A Sting In A Tale", all the music in this movie is from Ghanaian musicians. Nii, Trigmatic and a host of others feature prominently in this movie. If you are thinking of whether or not to rent this movie, I'll save you the trouble of thinking ... just watch the extra long trailer we have posted above and decide for yourself.

Kudos to Shirley and Sparrow for raising and keeping up the bar for Ghanaian movies!