SAKAWA

By Ben ASAMOAH

RISE AND SHINE WORLD SALES - as SALES All rights, World

Environmental - Completed 2018

Every day we receive spam e-mails from strangers. Who are these people? In
SAKAWA, three youngsters from Ghana turn to internet scamming with the help of black magic out
of desperation. What the West views as fraud, is seen by the boys practising Sakawa as exploitation of resources.

Festivals
& Awards

IDFA 2018
Luminous
Zurich FF 2019
International Documentary Film Competition
CPH:DOX 2019
SXSW 2019
One World 2019
Docudays UA 2019
Dok.Fest MÜNICH 2019
DocAviv 2019
    • Year of production
    • 2018
    • Genres
    • Environmental, First film, Documentary
    • Countries
    • BELGIUM, NETHERLANDS
    • Languages
    • ENGLISH, Other
    • Duration
    • 81 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Ben ASAMOAH
    • Producer(s)
    • Peter KRÜGER (INTI FILMS), Pieter VAN HUYSTEE (PIETER VAN HUYSTEE FILM)
    • Synopsis
    • We all have received these e-mails from strangers announcing that you have won the lottery or that an attractive woman would like to chat with you …
      But who are the people that try to deceive us? What human stories lie behind this phenomenon of internet fraud?
      In Ghana, there is a high rate of youth unemployment. This has led young men and women to practice internet fraud, with the help of animism/voodoo to earn a living. Sakawa is the name given to this practice. SAKAWA is a film about a new generation in Africa dealing with a digital world in their very own way.
      Ama is a young mother and a newcomer on the scamming scene. OneDollar tries to save the money he earns to travel to Italy. Francis, the most experienced of them all, teaches the youngsters the tricks of the trade.
      These stories are intertwined with the path of the E-Waste. What starts as Western waste dumped in Ghana, ends up as the medium for the Ghanaian youth to make money. A circle that shows the resilience of this generation.