Big movie on Ghana’s 2008 elections out

A movie on Ghana's 2008 General Elections has been released. It features Nana Akufo-Addo, John Atta Mills, Jerry Rawlings, John Kufuor, Afari-Gyan, Kwesi Pratt, Hannah Tetteh, Rojo Mettle-Nunoo and Kwabena Agyepong, among others, and it has received great reviews across the globe, with the Los Angeles Times describing the documentary feature film as “the gripping examination of Ghana's 2008 presidential contest on display.”

It is a movie, which is likely to reignite the kind of sensation that gripped the nation after the cable releases from Wikileaks.

The film which premiered in London last night is aptly titled, "An African Election".

The 2008 presidential elections in Ghana serve as a backdrop for this feature documentary that looks behind the scenes at the complex political machinery of a third-world democracy struggling to legitimise itself.

The movie portrays how perilously close we got to unleashing electoral violence as it shows footage of young teenagers being trained as militias with wooden guns wearing NDC T-Shirts.

Ghanaians in the UK were rushing for tickets yesterday at the Gate Cinema, Notting Hill Gate, London, where the two directors were ready to take questions after the movie.

When asked about why Jerry Rawlings was given a lot of air time in the film which came across as one sided, the director Jarreth Merz said he (Rawlings) was seen as being somewhat of a "sex symbol" in Ghana. By that, Merz meant people idolised Rawlings and would therefore expect to see him featured prominently in a film such as this.

Merz was asked why the NPP were under-represented in the film. Merz's response was to say that he tried to get access and interviews with the NPP but all were busy. He went on to say that the film isn't about the NPP and NDC (in fact all the political parties were featured in the film, including the independents) "the film was made for a broader audience," he said. The most important aspect of the film was to show that "democracy is very fragile and can't be taken for granted"

Merz said the film was intended to show a success story - "an example of how Ghana made democracy better by letting the people decide".

Where were the women in politics? Hannah Tetteh featured but she was the only woman interviewed. According to Merz, he wanted to talk to women and attempted to do so but they wouldn't talk, perhaps because they didn't feel comfortable talking to a man.

Merz mentioned that for a long time he had rejected his roots and making the film was like a home-coming.