Borga (film)

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Movie
Original title Borga
Country of production Ghana , Germany
original language Twi , German , English
Publishing year 2021
length 104 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director York-Fabian Raabe
script York-Fabian Raabe,
Toks grains
production Alexander Wadouh ,
Elaine Niessner ,
Tommy Niessner ,
Roxana Richters (producer)
music Tomer Moked ,
Ben Lukas Boysen
camera Tobias of the Born
cut Bobby Good ,
Kaya Inan ,
Edd Maggs
occupation

Borga is a Ghanaian - German feature film directed by York-Fabian Raabe from the year 2021 . The drama focuses on a young Ghanaian (portrayed by Eugene Boateng ) who grows up near the electronic waste dump in Agbogbloshie and hopes for a new, prosperous life in Germany.

The film premiered in January 2021 at the 42nd Max Ophüls Preis film festival , where it received the main prize in the feature film competition.

action

Kojo and his family grow up in poor conditions near an electronic waste dump in Ghana's capital Accra . His father Akwasi prefers his older brother Kofi and tries to keep Kojo away from the garbage dump and collecting metal from old, western electronic devices. He focuses on education and makes sure that his sons learn to read and write. One day by chance Kojo and his friends run into a Borga, a compatriot who has apparently become prosperous abroad. This gives Kojo the advice to strike a middle path with regard to following the rules in life. The encounter made a lasting impression on the boy.

Ten years later, as an adult, Kojo supports his family with work on the dump. He still feels that his father has treated him unfairly. When Kojo receives an offer from his childhood friend Nabil to start a new life with him in Germany, he agrees. Nabil knows a rich Borga there with his uncle Ebo. While Nabil dies on the dangerous journey via Lagos and Morocco in Algeria , Kojo arrives in Mannheim . There he learns that Ebo has only faked a life of prosperity. Kojo lives as a homeless person on the street before he accidentally gets work from his compatriot Bo. He has electronic waste collected and shipped home in containers. From now on Kojo impresses Bo with his hard work. Soon he dreams of his own business, but is only laughed at by his work colleagues.

One day Kojo secretly borrows elegant clothes from Bo and meets the elderly German paramedic and single mother Lina in a club. The two become a couple. In order to earn more money and become a Borga, he lets Bo persuade him to work as a drug courier ( packhorse ) between Accra and Germany with false papers . Equipped with a financial advance, he appears in his homeland as a rich Borga. There he meets his nephew Ekbo again. Kojo learns that his father Akwasi has since passed away and that Kofi's wife and Ekbo's mother Afua are no longer alive either. Against the will of his brother, who resented his absence for many years, he supported his family from Germany with money and expensive gifts. Kojo also begins to import electrical appliances to Ghana himself.

When Lina discovers a forged passport at Kojo, she renounces him. Business in Ghana also comes to a standstill when the container with electronic waste is not picked up by Ekbo at the port as promised. On his return to Accra, Kojo discovers that a house and land he financed for his mother was never completed by Kofi and Ekbo. In an argument with his brother, he also learns that his family was confronted with higher food prices at home due to his status and that Ekbo was robbed several times. Ekbo tries to emulate his uncle and make his way to Germany himself, but is killed. When a worker is seriously injured while handling kojos imported electronic waste, a riot ensues that almost kills him. Marked by severe burns, Kojo fled to Germany, where Lina nursed him back to health. He ensures that Bo can no longer find buyers for his electronic waste deliveries in Ghana and returns to his home country. There Kojo makes peace with his brother. Both build the house for their mother and find new partners.

History of origin

Borga (working title Eisen im Feuer ) is York-Fabian Raabe's feature film debut , for which he also wrote the script together with Toks Körner . The title is made up of the Ghanaian word of the same name, which is derived from the German word " Hamburg ". "Borga" means "the rich uncle from abroad". According to his own admission, Raabe wanted to tell “an authentic Ghanaian story” that viewers around the world can identify with. With Kojo he created a main character "who is a victim of their circumstances, but at the same time does not surrender to them". “On the contrary: It is the story of a person who“ empowers ”himself, makes mistakes and learns from them. Always with the aim of overcoming the grievances he encounters, ”says the filmmaker. At the same time Kojo seeks attention and encouragement, especially from his father, but also from the rest of the family. “Recognition is his great wish. I think that's something very archaic. This is a pattern that exists all over the world, ”says Raabe.

View of the electronic waste landfill in Agbogbloshie (2019)

Raabe got the idea for the film while filming his first short film Between Heaven and Earth (2010). There he met an actor from the Ivory Coast, whose father had recently died. Raabe wanted to finance a flight to his home country for him, but the actor refused. Since he had gone to the West, those around him at home expected that he must have become wealthy and therefore needed a lot more money. It took five years to develop the script. During this time, Raabe's second directorial work, the 15-minute short documentary Sodom's Children (2013), set in Ghana's capital Accra , was created. The film follows two street children who live in the vicinity of the electronic waste dump in Agbogbloshie .

In order to increase the drama and authenticity in Borga , Raabe shot in German and English as well as in Ghanaian languages. The leading actor Eugene Boateng , who grew up in Germany, spoke Twi . The actor Adjetey Anang , who is very well known in Africa and plays Boateng's father, switched to Ga .

The production was financially supported by HessenFilm und Medien and the MFG Filmförderung Baden-Württemberg (350,000 euros ). The shooting took place between November 6 and December 4, 2018 at original locations in Ghana (Accra and Aburi ), Mannheim , Kassel (the director's hometown), and in Berlin .

reception

The world premiere of Borga took place on January 18, 2021 at the 42nd Max Ophüls Preis film festival. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic , the most important newcomer film festival for Germany , Austria and Switzerland was not organized in cinemas in Saarbrücken , as usual , but rather as an online edition.

Sophia Schülke ( Saarbrücker Zeitung ) took Borga as "fresh Cinema" and "a film pearl" on, "in the debate on West African migration to Europe overdue" was. It is about a “migration and family story that neither takes sides” nor “serves too big clichés”. The film will be carried by its main actor Eugene Boateng and the view of those affected will be "differentiated and personal" explored.

According to Kaspar Heinrich ( Der Tagesspiegel ) , Borga is a "lavishly produced drama". It tells "of the false expectations that Europe and Africa have of each other".

Raabe himself counted his directorial work as one of the first German films to tell the subject of migration from a black or Ghanaian perspective. A year earlier, Burhan Qurbani had also taken up a migration story in his award-winning work Berlin Alexanderplatz (2020), with the main character coming from Guinea-Bissau . At the Max Ophüls Prize film festival, the feature film jury and the members shared the director's observation for the award of the prize for the best socially relevant film and included this in their jury statements. In their justification, the members of the Ecumenical Jury Prize emphasized the sober and realistic presentation of the migration issue and the authenticity. Borga also problematizes “our capitalist actions, in which toxic waste is shown as a new form of exploitation of Africa”. The film gives “refugees faces” and advertises “solidarity within the human family”. “He [Borga] questions the dream of illegal immigrants who are willing to turn criminals for their supposed happiness. The protagonist cannot meet the ambivalent expectations of both worlds and ultimately experiences the family as the ultimate support ”. The juries also praised the performance of the actors.

Awards

Borga won the competition for the best feature film at the Max Ophüls Prize 2021 film festival . In addition, the film received the award for the best socially relevant film (to associate producer and actor Eugene Boateng ), the audience award and the award of the Ecumenical Jury. Lead actor Eugene Boateng also received a nomination in the category of best young actors .

Raabe had already received a nomination for the Thomas Strittmatter Screenplay Award in 2016 for the unpublished script .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Background . In: borga-themovie.com (accessed January 23, 2021).
  2. ↑ Borga . In: ffmop.de (accessed on January 23, 2021).
  3. ↑ a b c d e "We tell migration from a black perspective" . In: hessenschau.de, January 21, 2021 (accessed January 23, 2021).
  4. ^ A b Sophia Schülke: The fine "Borga" from Ghana and the pitfalls of migration . In: saarbruecker-zeitung.de, January 21, 2021 (accessed January 21, 2021).
  5. ^ Children of Sodom . In: vieworkfilm.de (accessed on January 18, 2021).
  6. ↑ Borga . In: filmportal.de (accessed on January 23, 2021).
  7. ^ Film festival magazine . In: ffmop.de (PDF file, p. 5, approx. 16.23 MB).
  8. ↑ Kaspar Heinrich: Our village as a world stage . In: Der Tagesspiegel, January 18, 2021, p. 20.
  9. ↑ a b The winners in 2021 . In: ffmop.de (accessed January 24, 2021).
  10. ↑ Nominations for the Max Ophüls Prize: Best Young Actors . In: ffmop.de, January 8, 2021 (accessed January 15, 2021).
  11. ↑ Notes . In: Südwest Presse , December 17, 2015, p. 15.