Asylum (short film)

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Movie
Original title Asylum
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2003
length 21 minutes
Rod
Director Sandy McLeod
production Gini reticker
camera Ellen Kuras
Kirsten Johnson
cut Kate Taverna
occupation

Babaa Andoh

Asylum (dt. Asylum ) is a short documentary film that was nominated in the 2004 Academy Awards in the Best Documentary Short Film category.

action

Babaa Andoh, a young woman, says she left Ghana and her son on the advice of her mother .

In a flashback one learns that she met a man named Daniel and became pregnant by him. They planned to get married, but he died at the age of 22 before they could realize their plans. For the next two years she raised her son alone and attended a secretary school. After graduation, she was offered a job and a relationship developed between Andoh and her boss. When he proposed to her, he asked for permission from Andoh's father's family. Andoh's mother claimed that the father was dead. But that turned out to be a lie. Andoh met her father and the joy of getting to know each other was great, but when she told of her request, he forbade her to marry. He would choose her husband. The choice fell on a much older man with whom the father conducts business. In order for her to be "clean" for the man, her clitoris should be cut off, and she was told that the family would be cursed if she did not consent. Anyway, intact genitals would lead to too much arousal, which would lead to promiscuity and she would eventually end up as a prostitute. Andoh knew that one can die from the effects of circumcision . She also realized that her mother had left her father to prevent Andoh from being mutilated.

When she told her father that she would not comply with his request, he hit her. She was tied up naked, but a compassionate woman, who had also put her in contact with her father, freed her and gave her some clothes. Andoh managed to escape, but when she got home, her mother informed her that the father was already there and was looking for her, which is why she now had to flee. In Accra she was staying with friends, but her father had searched for her through newspaper advertisements, so that she was no longer safe there either. In desperation, she turned to someone who, after two months in isolation, enabled her to travel illegally to the United States . However, upon entry, it was found that the passport did not belong to her. When she was told that she would be sent back to Ghana, she told them that she was in mortal danger. Andoh was chained and handcuffed like a criminal and taken away. After a year in prison, she was ultimately granted political asylum . She now lives in North Carolina and is saving to bring her son home.

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