Love Brewed in the African Pot

Young bourgeois Aba falls in love with working class mechanic Joe despite resistance from parents, and the emergence of jealousy, suspicion, misunderstanding and snobbery, leading to tragic events. Released in 1980 this Ghanaian feature film from writer/producer/director Kwaw Ansah (in his feature debut) was shot in Accra, Senya Beraku and Aburi, and is regarded as something of a classic of West African cinema. There are shades of 'Romeo and Juliet' in this simple comic romantic soap opera, which becomes more serious and tragic as it develops. It's theme of love versus class and position is promising, in a film which features combat sports on a beach, a nightmare sequence (involving a giant pot), a miscarriage, a rape, a witch doctor ceremony, and madness. Unfortunately this tale of 'the troubled heart' is wrapped up in melodramatic amateur dramatics, with badly lit scenes shot in the dark, and (on the version i saw) poor sound quality. Co-editor Tony Palmer.