Children of the Mountain: This Child, Not A Blessing!

The 2016 film by a Ghanaian producer, won the prize for the best long film at the 2017 Ecrans Noir Film Festival.

4 minutes time, quite poignant for viewers watching the film “Children of the Mountain.” Written and produced by Ghanaian film producer, Priscilla Anany, the 2016 film tells the story of a young woman who gives birth to a deformed and sickly child and becomes the victim of cruelty and superstition.

“Children of the Mountain” is an honest exploration of a mother’s will in the face of adversity. When her baby is born with a cleft lip, cerebral palsy, and Down syndrome, Essuman is led to believe that she has a ‘dirty womb.’ Her promising future as a wife and mother is shattered as her lover disowns her with the baby and the community eyes her with suspicion. As Essuman meets her husband for a naming ceremony of the child, his response is “you call this thing a child.” She was told the baby is not a blessing and that there are mountains everywhere, filled with spirits of the unborn child, they come out at dawn in search for mothers and they chose her. Essuman goes to great lengths in search for a cure to her daughter’s illness; she encounters futility at the hospitals, dubious religious leaders and medicine men. In these dire times, she oscillates between having the utmost devotion to her son and controversial attempts at self-preservation.

Shot entirely in Ghana, the producer says as a woman advocate, she wan...