Borga: Award-winning German drama about a Ghanaian man who hopes for big money in Germany but is bitterly disappointed.
Film plot and background
Award-winning German drama about a Ghanaian man who hopes for big money in Germany but is bitterly disappointed.
The Ghanaian word Borga means something like “the rich uncle from abroad”. The two brothers Kojo (Eugene Boateng) and Kofi (Jude Arnold Kurankyi) only know poverty in Ghana. They grow up on the electric bulkhead rubbish dump in the capital Accra. Their father (Adjetey Anang) runs a business there that concentrates on collecting metals, which they extract from Western e-waste. His son Kofi is later to take over the business and therefore receives special attention from his father. At the same time, Kojo meets a Borga (Elikem Kumordzie) from Germany who is adored by his family – a formative experience.
Ten years later, nothing has come of their father’s plans for the future. Kojo finally wants to become a Borga himself, to pull the family out of poverty. He breaks with his family and embarks on the arduous journey to Germany. Once he arrives in the industrialised country, however, he finds that his dream of life and reality are incompatible. Instead of being welcomed with open arms, he has to keep himself afloat with criminal mini-jobs.
The only support is Lina (Christiane Paul), whom he meets dressed in a suit. In front of her he has to maintain the image of the successful Borga. One of his assignments takes him back to Ghana. There, not only his life falters, but also that of the family he left behind.
“Borga” – background, cast, release date
At its premiere at the Max Ophüls Festival, “Borga” was already convincing across the board and collected four prizes, including the prize for Best Feature Film and the Audience Award. In the jury’s statement, the view of “a consistently black perspective in German cinema” was particularly praised.
York-Fabian Raabe, who wrote the screenplay for “Borga” together with Toks Körner, is responsible for the direction. The cast reads not only well-known names like Christiane Paul, but stars from Africa like Eugene Boateng, Thema Buabeng, Adjetey Anang, Lydia Forsen and Jude Arnold Kurankyi. The German theatrical release of “Borga” is on 28 October 2021.
