Guldkysten

The movie does not have great resources and not even excellent actors but it is made following the cruel and inhuman reality of what has been the history in certain unfortunate places and there is always the usual story of evil black and white men going against justice and law for personal enrichment.

The scenography of Ghana is very beautiful because nature is very beautiful and man is the one who destroys it.

Method acting? Check! Two actors actually urinating on a third. Actor starving himself half to death? Check! Jakob Oftebro lived on an almond a day. Provoking? Check. At least some Danish nationalists will raise eyebrows at characters singing royal hymns while group raping African slave women.

I could go on with the bullet points that many critics will check off before arriving at a higher than average review. But these common features are far from enough to entice me.

This movie was, however, close to capturing me. By its sometimes dreamlike filming; the naturalist main character's musings; the imminent conflict between the scientist and the religious fundamentalists pushed aside by their common basic decency opposing the brutality of slavery; the long overdue treatment of that historical period and place.

But then there is the very special and in my opinion horrible techno music soundtrack which at the very least is completely alien to the time and setting. There is the slow, abrupt progress of the story. The lack of belief in most of the actors. The apparent difference between historical facts and this fiction; i.e. the main character being a pure hero while the historical person was actually a slave owner.

And at the end of the day: How much do the descendants of the victims of slavery care for a movie about it, that portrays a white man as the sole hero and liberator of slaves?

Didn't like it. Hated the music.

This is not a real review, it should be understood more as a collection of impressions on the film.

Who knows what to say about this film, well surely one word that describes it well is boring, but not boring in the classic sense of the word because many interesting things happen in the film, but boring because the film alternates parts where literally everything happens in a very confusing and films where absolutely nothing happens and where the spectator's attention span is lowered to truly minimal levels. This is not to say that the film is insufficient, for goodness sake it is very interesting, but if it had been even more entertaining it would have been better.

Set in Danish Guinea (part of modern-day Ghana) in the 1830s, 'Gold Coast' follows idealistic Wulff Frederik Wulff (who according to the film's website is an amalgamation of three real-life individuals). Having devised a method for growing coffee in Africa, Wulff is despatched from Denmark to put his plan into action. Upon arrival, he finds a colony that apparently consists of precisely five people: two missionaries (or "lunatic missionaries", as Wulff puts it), the drink-sodden governor, the governor's slimy deputy and a boorish merchant. Although he finds joy in the region's natural splendour, Wulff's enthusiasm and naïvety is gradually worn down by the antics of the colonists, by his own doubts that the native peoples understand his agricultural methods, by attacks on his plantations by the local Ashanti tribe, and by a slave trade he thought his country had outlawed.

This is not a flawless film. What I assume is a small budget shows: surely there were more than just a few people in Danish Guinea? A bigger budget might have paid for a few more extras! Also, apart from Wulff himself, the other characters - some of whom, such as the governor and his deputy, were real people - are portrayed in one-dimensional terms which suggest lazy scripting.

However, those flaws aside, this is a good film. Seeing the grubby colonial buildings and slightly tatty costumes the viewer really gets an impression of a colony on its uppers (barely a decade after the events in this film, Denmark sold its Gold Coast settlements to the UK). As Wulff, lead actor Jakob Oftebro - hitherto mainly a pretty face in supporting casts - proves his acting chops, not only with an alarming weight loss but also with his portrayal of Wulff's realisation that everything in the garden isn't rosy and his subsequent descent into madness. Other actors are hampered by the limited character development in their roles, but don't let that put you off seeing this film.

Oftebro is a great actor. The setting (the Danish slave colonies) is interesting. They are willing to experiment with music. But sadly, the movie is quite bad.

With heavy handed symbolism (flags, horned skulls, etc), good-or-evil characters, a messy storyline and ill fitting soundtrack, Guldkysten will sadly become another failed Scandinavian epic movie. A movie about a slaving colony with a protagonist ahead of his time (sharing the viewer's opinions on slavery) standing up against evil old fashioned slavers - we ought to be past these kind of stories by now. While I did enjoy the more experimental music, I had a hard time relating it to whatever was going on in the story. The movie is at its best when its characters borders on the insane, and the last quarter of the movie is by far the best one.

Oh well. Onwards and upwards, Scandinavian movie makers!