[ Review: LUCKY ]
H
owever, character development
seem to be the ingredient that
anchors the wings of the film as
each personality is presented as a
slide in a chapter of the life of the
main character. They are presented in tran-
sient vignettes that rob them of their depth.
Indeed, in some parts, it does feel like Lucky
is episode one in a mini-series documenting
these dynamic live experiences. The 80-min-
ute runtime seems too short a period to fully
flesh out all the characters. The film also does
not make up for this with its main plot struc-
ture which at some points feels weighted
and reliant on certain cliché film tropes and
stereotypes. Despite following Lucky through
his day, the audience is not given a chance to
connect directly with the character and his
intimate thoughts, desires and motivation
for his questionable actions are camouflaged
by the fast-paced narrative sequencing. You
don’t really get to understand Lucky; you just
get to follow him on a remarkably entertain-
ing ride, with humorous and troubling mo-
ments around every bend.
Beyond this, Fofo Gavua and the team at Ab-
19 | Colossium . December 2018
strakte films have produced a master stroke
of independent African filmmaking. The film
renders the experience of living in and sur-
viving Accra into a transient episode where
the audience is slowly transported from their
lives into a world that is eerily familiar, lucid
and tangible. It brings a refreshing honest
fidelity to the way in which the lives of young
man and woman in African cities like Accra
are portrayed on screen. The films successful
online marketing campaign, fueled mostly
by the love and yearning for authentic and
refreshing storytelling, cannot be maligned.
A
lready, Lucky feels like a cult clas-
sic. For an independent film, it has
managed to capture the attention
of people outside the universe of
experience that birthed it. It also
perfectly captures what it is like to be a young
Ghanaian man or woman in 2018, perma-
nently preserving and documenting the so-
cial, economic, political and cultural elements
that created this moment in time. For now,
we can only speculate as to what its role will
be in African cinematic history, but the film is
already off to a great start.