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NANA BENZ

By Thomas BÖLTKEN

EASTWEST FILMDISTRIBUTION GMBH - as SALES All rights, World

Documentary - Completed 2012

The Amazons of the West African Mercers

- Year of production
- 2012
- Genres
- Documentary
- Countries
- GERMANY
- Languages
- FRENCH, ENGLISH
- Duration
- 87 mn
- Director(s)
- Thomas BÖLTKEN
- Writer(s)
- Thomas BÖLTKEN
- Producer(s)
- Stefan SCHNEIDER (Schneiderfilm)
- Synopsis
- NANA BENZ tells the story of the legendary Queens of the West - African fabric-trade, self-made women, coming out of nowhere, building empires. These women were heroes to the people and the first Mercedes drivers on the West African coast. They have marked the history of Togo from the battles for independence through the dictatorship to the globalization of today. To the population the Nana Benz have become mythical figures endued with supernatural powers, but mostly they were clever business women with connections to powerful men like the dictator Eyadema. The director Thomas Böltken manages to establish closure to the protagonists by letting their heirs – grandchildren, widows, lovers – speak.