Ninah’s Dowry

It’s a euphemism to say it’s more difficult to make a film in Africa than elsewhere. It’s usually just plain impossible. That’s why the films that miraculously are made should be embraced.
The Ninah from the title is a woman who doesn’t have any choice in life. She is married off and abused. But she is not the kind of woman who lets this all happen to her; she starts her own restaurant, but can’t escape from her own past. She was once traded like a cow, and that value continues to pursue her.
The story should have been set in the hottest season, but a filmmaker doesn’t always have the choice. That’s why he had to shoot it in the rainy season and make the best of it. It seems symbolic for the situation of the film and basically for all African filmmaking. But some times necessity, that season, that African landscape, give something extra to a film. Survival is also an art. And every art has its own laws of beauty.