"PUNCTURED HOPE" - Art and Activism:

Toronto Pictures’ New Film Calls for Cultural Change... Its African Film Academy Fosters the Talent to Make the Call Compelling

Premiere Issue (P. 40)

By Dick Delson

For Bruno Pischiutta Art and Activism go hand-in-glove. All his films are rooted in compelling issues of political, cultural or social nature. All of his films explore issues in a profusely intimate manner, they raise troubling questions which long for answers and strongly imply the need for enlightenment and ensuing change. His soon-to-be-released feature film, Punctured Hope, shot in Ghana this past summer, is no exception to the rule.

While Ghana’s Constitution of 1992 and its Criminal Code both declare all forms of human servitude illegal, the centuries- old practice of Trokosi the subject of Pischiutta’s arresting new film continues in pockets throughout the West African country. Barbaric in its nature, Trokosi is cloaked in a name which evokes awe and fear. Literally translated as "wife of the gods” in the local Ewe language, Trokosi is the practice where young virgin girls are offered to religious shrines as reparation for the sins real or imagined of family members, living or long-since dead.

Current estimates suggest that as many as 20,000 women still live in bondage in Ghana. International efforts to end the practice are on-going, and in the interim, the efforts of relief organizations such as Australia’s AusAID and International Needs Ghana (ING) work diligently to liberate, rehabilitate and re-assimilate Trokosi’s ravaged victims.

In 2003, in an interview with Yvette Turlings of Radio Netherlands, Patience Vormawor of International Needs Ghana (ING) claims that "the youngest Trokosi she ever came across was only 3 years old" ...noting that Trokosi is an eternal form of penance, with some young women compensating for crimes that are hundreds of years old. When a Trokosi victim dies as many do at a very young age due to the horrific conditions which they must endure another virgin child from her family must be sent to take her place. And that is only the beginning...

Punctured Hope’s director, Pischiutta’s passion for the topic of Trokosi is apparent in every frame of his exceptional feature film. "When we first decided to make this movie, we conducted an informal survey of Canadians and Americans to get a better sense of the level of international awareness surrounding the issue," he notes. "Although we found it disturbing, we were hardly surprised when many of the people whom we asked, said they believed "Trokosi" must be some form of rare disease indigenous to third world countries. When we shared an actual explanation of Trokosi, people were shocked and horrified to learn that the practice of slavery was still informally endorsed by a twenty-first century culture. That confirmed the urgency of the film’s message for us."

"When we undertake a project of such political, cultural and emotional magnitude, we do so with a mission that encompasses our craft as serious film-makers with our conscience as citizens of a global community," Pischiutta notes. "Trokosi is archaic, barbaric, illegal and yet still very much a fact-of-life in West Africa today. A number of international political and cultural organizations have taken aggressive steps to stop the practice, and their efforts are on-going. Historically, art has also always played a pivotal role in mandating social change, therefore we hope to further elevate global awareness of this brutal and entrenched cultural phenomenon through our film." D

NEXT ARTICLE >>