On a photo shoot in Ghana, an American model slips back in time, becomes enslaved on a plantation and bears witness to the agony of her ancestral past.
Direction
Gerima's 11-year fight to finish this — every frame burns.
Score
Spoken word meets spirituals. The bird cry haunts.
Acting
Non-professional cast, lived-in performances. Nunu's eyes.
Director
Haile Gerima
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Gerima self-distributed after every studio passed, premiering at film festivals with him personally present. It became the highest-grossing independent Black film of 1993.
The Akan concept of Sankofa — 'go back and fetch it' — frames the entire narrative structure, rejecting linear Western storytelling for cyclical, ancestral time.
US
GB
