Films in shooting or post-production
Vagabonds
Synopsis
His father unknown and abandoned by his mother, Owusu’s only caregiver is his alleged half-aunt, Yaa. Their sacred bond is cut short upon her death giving birth to Adobea. The two are placed in a rundown orphanage and raised on the outskirts of Kumasi. Owusu cares for his sister, who is burdened with sickle cell disease. When an American couple comes to adopt her, Adobea and Owusu decide to break out of the orphanage in a last-ditch effort to find his long-lost mother in Accra. The journey is both wondrous and full of peril, hitchhiking across the country with the help of smugglers and colorful vagrants. Finally, let loose in one of Accra’s biggest markets, the pair are inadvertently rescued from the densely populated city by a bunch of street kids known as the Jackals. Their enigmatic leader, Ziggy, teaches Owusu and Adobea how to exist on the fringes of society and fight for something to call their own.
John Kwame Gyampa Markin
Marie-Pierre Frappier
Idrissu Tontie Jr., Dorothy Adobea Tandon, Emmanuel Wilberforce, Roselyn Ngissah, Gabriel Narh Addo
A.K.A Entertainment (Ghana)
YEMOH Ike
La Luna Productions (France)
Sébastien Hussenot
Director’s statement
I often find that a big part of our core identity revolves around the innate need to know whom we belong to. Is it only to a person? Or to a larger family, connected by blood; or maybe to a group united in circumstance, or even a shared complex history? When kinship is externalized as the unspoken oath that you are prepared to do anything for someone, even overcome death, just to ensure that person has a place to belong. I wanted to explore this idea, while re-introducing the new Ghanaian socio-cultural landscape, both to itself and the world, through an unlikely source: a disenfranchised Ghanaian youth, hailing from an equally young globalized nation. For they are at the forefront of redefining what it means to be alive and to be human in their collective togetherness. They survive in defiance of today’s fast-changing world, which does everything it can to leave them behind. And yet, they have united a band of nomads wandering the earth, fighting to exist, to be a part of Ghana.
Biographies
Amartei Armar is a Ghanaian-American film director and screenwriter who explores topics surrounding identity, immigration, and belonging in his work. After completing his BFA in film production at the University of British Columbia, he relocated to Ghana, co-founded A.K.A Entertainment, and contributed with several short films to the new wave of Ghanaian and African Diasporic cinema. His most notable work, Tsutsue (2022), had its premiere at the Festival de Cannes and was nominated for the Short Film Palme d’Or—a proud first for Ghana.
YEMOH Ike, a Ghanaian film producer and co-founder of A.K.A Entertainment, rose from humble beginnings to global acclaim by producing Tsutsue (2022), the first Ghanaian film nominated for the Short Film Palme d’or at the Festival de Cannes. Initially drawn to acting, a pivotal moment redirected him behind the camera. With a marketing background and deep resilience, he founded a talent agency and champions culturally authentic storytelling. Collaborating with filmmaker Amartei Armar, he aims to redefine Ghana’s cinematic future, believing the industry isn’t dead—just waiting to be reborn.
Red Sea Fund, AnaVentures, Canal + International
