Director
Leila Afua Djansi
Cast list
Ama Abebrese : Buki Ocansey
Kofi Adjorlolo : Fathe
Khareemar Aguiar: Estelle
Ebbe Bassey: Maa Dede
Randall Batinkoff: Dan Dubick
Credits
Writing credits: Leila Afua Djansi
Theodore Baidoo: producer
Dave Harper: executive producer
Amanda Jissie: co-producer
Winrich Kolbe : supervising producer
Rita Tsikudo: line producer
Whitney Valcin: co-producer
Adam Wilkinson: co-producer
Synopsis
Set in the village of Kroboland, Ghana, this film tells the story ofthree women: Adobea, Buki, and Theresa. Despite their different walks of life and individual struggles, they are united by the pain of losing a child. Buki is a doctor who plans to transform an abandoned house that villagers claim to be haunted into a clinic. Buki encounters Adobea, a childhood friend who is pregnant and unaware of an illness that causes her to cough up blood. Adobea’s husband’s family claims that she is cursed after several of her children die under mysterious circumstances. Buki and her husband seek counseling to address their marital problems largely created by their childless relationship. Their marital counselor, Theresa, struggled with drug addiction and post-partum depression twelve years ago that resulted in her husband taking their child away; Theresa works with a case investigator with the hope of reuniting with the daughter she hasn’t seen in years. A drama that weaves mysticism and supernatural elements into its storyline, these women develop a bond and learn from their collective experiences of redemption, love, and forgiveness as they restore the house into a clinic for the villagers.
Reviews
Tambay A. Obenson, Leila Djansi's "Ties That Bind" Tops Ghana Movie Awards Nominations w/ 21 Nods. Indiewire (independent film website)
Sandra Appiah, Leila Djansi’s New Film, Ties That Bind, Catches Holl
ywood’s Attention. Face2Face Africa. (pan-African media group)
Vanessa Martinez, ABFF 2012 Review: Leila Djansi's Emotionally Rich, Thought-Provoking 'Ties That Bind.’ Indiewire (independent film website)
Academic Articles:
African Video Movies and Global Desires: A Ghanian History by Carmela Garritano. Ohio University Research in International Studies, Africa Series No. 91 (2013), p. 154-194.
“Leila’s Ties That Bind Making News.” The Ghanaian Chronicle. 10 June 2011: Print.