Leila Djansi happens to be one of the most revered producers/director in the movie industry in Ghana. In her own words, she is “a filmmaker… I make movies that dwell on social issues.” She also happens to be one of the most vocal and acerbic of the bunch. Leila has been known to verbally confront her “critics” and reviewers online. I have personally been a victim of it indirectly sometime back on Facebook.
Leila’s vitriol nature seems to position her as one of the best personalities in the movie industry in Ghana. This has been proven with a 2009 worldFest Platinum Award, various awards at the African Movie Academy Awards, BAFTA/LA Pan African Film Festival Choice Award and the Ghana Movie Awards.
However, considering the spate at which I find sex scenes well-shot in the movies written/directed by her, I have come to maintain that she is not only one of the best filmmakers in Ghana as far, but she seems to have developed a keen talent for producing awesome sex scenes. In an interview with myJoyOnline, Leila is quoted to have said,
“When I write sex, I write it as an emotion, a state of mind of the character or characters. In ‘’I Sing of A Well’’, they were lovers in one scene, and in the other is was a submissive woman and a man who found no joy in his conquest all that is true of how women are handled in sex, giving and taking, unwilling victims, or helpless or dutiful individuals. These emotions driving the moment are what make the sex scene look or feel a certain way.”
She claimed, “It isn’t like your actors are really engaged in the act of copulation; they are selling the scene with the nudity and sexual gestures.” “Nudity is a form of expression. It’s a storytelling tool. It’s also an aesthetic. It may not serve a strong purpose, but it brings other aesthetic dimensions. It can be used in so many ways. Film sex is almost the same thing. They carry the same connotations. How you depict the act of sex also is a storytelling tool — lovemaking or rape. You can have nudity without film sex, and you will be sending the same “erotic” message apart from what you intend to achieve artistically or even commercially.”
Leila seems to have a total grasp on the whole idea of nudity in movies, something the local scene is still now getting open to in a slow but sure manner. Her clear control of it shows in how the sex scenes in two of her popular movies; the mild scenes in AMAA-nominated “I Sing of A Well” and the very disturbing scene in “Sinking Sands” are handled.
And as a friend suggested, she should try working in the porn industry. No seriously…no.
Originally published at pulse.com.gh on March 7, 2015.