Perfect Images Studios, Henriksm Multimedia Concept Ltd present, Olu Jacobs (Bankole), Adjety Anang (Adane) Marie Humbert (Susan), Yvonne Okoro, (Alice) Jason Nwoga (Jarreth) Christabel Ekeh (Afia), Fred Kanebi (Thomas). Production Manager, Lydia Laryea; Editor, Nana Akua Manso; Screenwriter/Director, Shirley Frimpong-Manso; Producer, Henry Ikechukwu Simon; Director of Photography, John Passah. (C) 2013
The English call it portmanteau, a word coined from the French; the Americans call it suitcase and the English-speaking Africans call it almost in their vernacular, potomanto. This is simply a luggage carrier to secure belongings for travel. The screenwriter combined the simple formula of an undercover investigative story to make a crime bust.
There’s Adane (Adjety Anang) once a police officer, knowledgeable of police procedural now turned freelance photographer, hired mostly by spouses suspicious of cheating partners, and gets paid handsomely doing that; a beautiful undercover Interpol agent, Susan (Marie Humbert) lures her target, Bankole (Olu Jacobs) a fake Ice Cream Parlor owner, whose real business is selling kidneys of young men abroad; Adane and Alice (Yvonne Okoro) have an ugly past in the police force; innocent retired United States peace corps, turned youth football management coordinator, Jarreth (Jason Nwoga); and a barfly, Afia (Christabel Ekeh). These are the ingredients or plotlines in Manso’s masterpiece-Potomanto.
The film opens to Adane, from his point of view taking photos of his target having sex in bed with someone, he gets chased from there. The next time we meet him, he’s sitting at a bar, a water hole he frequents and served with a drink in a tumbler by a bedmate of his, Afia. The owner comes, gives him wad of money wrapped up in manilla envelope. He has done a good job and is getting paid. He crowns the evening by laying the barfly, Afia. That is his daily life: photos, drink, sex and chain smoke.
By following Adane, we follow the chain of events and discovery. We are introduced to Jarreth at the soccer field with the youth practicing, and Adane is there taking photos. Next thing, Bankole who is in a relationship with Susan but not so sure of himself, hires Adane to follow and take pictures of her, wherever she goes. Remember the Bodyguard? (1992). Manso is gradually bringing the story and characters under one roof.
There’s a natural seamless convergence of plotlines taking place already. The freelance photographer Adane is hired by Bankole to tail his beautiful undercover girlfriend. Susan, being smart and careful observant of her surroundings, notices she’s being followed and lures Adane to her hideout. When she confesses her mission to Adane, he’s quick to join ranks with her, especially when he shows an earlier crush on her. Yet, it turns out, Susan has been working in tandem with Alice, the desk officer in charge of the mysterious disappearances and killings of young boys in the city.
Alice Ofori had blown her relationship with Adane when both were in the force and caught her cheating with a senior officer. They had both gone their separate ways, but they would cross paths over this investigation. In a rare meet in a bar, Alice tries at reconciling when in a humble voice asks Adane, “Do you miss it? (beat) I mean the boys. ( beat) Me too, I miss my partner.” Three is a crowd. Adane is already in a relationship with Susan, and there’s no time for him to play hooky, especially with the mission at hand. Adane volunteers to investigate Jarreth.
Jarreth, the retired United States peace Corps is been beating by mothers of the community youths, and wrongly suspected by Alice of being behind the killings of young boys and extracting their kidneys. Jarreth is ahead of the investigation when his girlfriend with whom he communicates in London, on skype discloses to him the deaths of young boys in the UK who are discovered to have no kidneys and are all from Ghana. He withholds this information but knows that there must be someone in the city committing these crimes.
It is now Susan, Adane, and Alice. And with the pressure they come to bear on Jarreth, he joins the team. One of the youths complains angrily to Jarreth that, “the Potomato man makes a better promise than you.” “Potomato man?” asks Jarreth. “Who takes people abroad.” Says the youth. This rings a bell and connects the dots. He’s left aghast. Afia discovers a portmanteau in her and her brother’s room but her brother got missing for two days and she raises alarm.
Like a domino, all plots fall in line, and Bankole is arrested. I can’t stop to be amazed by Shirley Frimpong-Manso and her directing genius, since the first time I watched A Sting in A Tale. I watch closely her directing and you find that she applies economy of space, the economy of dialogue and economy of shots. For example, in the scene where Adane, Susan and Alice are gathered, and all of them blurted out the same line as if they are of the same mind. Of course, they are: “It must be the underground!!!” the three yell together.
When we see black and yellow medically certified potomantos changing hands for brown manila envelopes, in New York, Paris, London, Belgium and China, Manso tells us the fruit of the criminal enterprise that takes place in Ghana is paying off abroad. There had been lots of talks about human and human parts trafficking going on in Africa and the third world in general. Recently, a friend of mine in West Africa called for me to help him procure a passport to China. “Why?” I asked. “There’s a Chinese fellow in town offering scholarships to study in China.” He says. I wonder he has seen Manso’s Potomanto. I called back and said, “If it’s not between the two embassies (China and Ghana) don’t try it. Good movie to watch.