Kofa’s Media presents Agya Koo (Moses), Richard Asante (Padlock), Salman Mumin (Bibi), Fella Makafui (Kiki), John Dumelo (Kofi Asamoah), Kalsoume Sinare (Aunty), Prophet Wontumi Munil (Abeiku Santana) Rosalyn Ngissah (Aku), Adjety Anan (Doctor), Umar Krupp (Moshosho) Solomon Fixon-Owoo (Oboi). Director of Photography, Kelly Doe; Producers, Kofi Asamoah, Peter Sedufia; Executive Producers, Kofi Asamoah, Peter Sedufia, Francis Afortey. Production Manager, Nabil Mazungo; Written by Kofi Asamoah, Yaw Twumasi, Peter Sedufia. ©2022.
Kalsoume Sinare must have rushed away from the set of Away Bus (2022) to the set of Silence (2024), that macabre tale of abuse and murder that takes place on the forested coastal village of Ghana, way in the boondocks of the country. In Silence, Sinare (Yaa yo) plays the mother of Jackie Appiah (Nena Yaa), and Martha Ankoma (Narkie), and the trio, mother and daughters go through gruesome experiences in the hands of their male counterparts. The theme of the story, I mean Silence could be a textbook case of female abuse in the local Ghanian society. A serious theme!
Away Bus is not as serious, except for the fact that a hospital patient could die for lack of moey to pay upfront. It is a comic tragedy unlike Silence. Aunt Muni spent almost eighty percent of screen time on hospital bed and did not get out until she was pronounced dead. She had fallen when her two daughters wayward as could be, first comes Bibi with a throng of area boys chasing after her for beating one of their men and were seeking revenge.
Aunt Muni’s shop is the grand stop for all the riff raff in the ghetto of Accra, so when her two girls, Bibi, at first run into her arms, a group of area boys charging after her, she can dispel them. Yet, another daughter, Kiki, distraught and angry comes crying in her shed about group of men cheating her in a card game, Bibi wants to charge there. She stops her daughter even as they are left in disgust. She stopped the girls from going out there, but they could not listen. Out of frustration she falls on the floor of the shed, unconscious. In the hospital, she needs 20,000 Cedis for her treatment to commence. Bibi and Kiki have to find way to bring the money for their mother’s treatment.
Thus, starts the rigmarole of the two daughters to find funds for their mother’s treatment at the hospital. “The National Insurance Card won’t cover such medical condition,” the Doctor, (Adjetey Anang) says. The Priest, whose church Aunt Muni has been a tithe-paying member for ages couldn’t help the poor girls but stands with them in prayers; the politician for who Bibi had campaigned in national election refuses to see her. At last, their uncle couldn’t help with his sister’s medical bill. To solve such financial dilemma, they must become what they never intended to be––thieves.
Then a notorious pickpocket Padlock (Richard Asante) runs into them as they sit hardly knowing what they’ll do to help their mother. Padlock is among Aunt Muni’s frequent ghetto patronages. Thanks to frequent charity meals, he knows Aunt Muni as a generous benefactor in their community. “Aunt Muni nor fit die.” But when the girls explain to him the circumstances and the dire financial need of 20,000 Cedis, “Where will I get that kind of money from? If I have that kind of money I will be hanging with J-zee and Beyoncé in Vegas, ganging….” Yet he sees the misery in the girls’ eyes. “Aunt Muni has bailed me countless times out of jail…She’s the only person I can rely on when am hungry…Aunt Muni can’t fit die. I have a plan.” He assures both Bibi and Kiki. He knows more about the streets than they ever imagined. Padlock assures the girls that he will help them get the money, if only they play by his advice as a master planner.
Padlock offers the girls a crash course in holding up a passenger bus, as he shares them revolvers: “Keep your attention sharp, sprint at your top speed, and make sure you avoid being caught.” He buys tickets for them to board a bus bound to get away from the city to somewhere. The Away Bus heist is staged. A bus full of unsuspecting passengers, singing hymnals and listening to a gospel preaching man of God, leaves the parking lot for the freeway.
The heist succeeds when a splinter group of gangsters led by Moshosho (Umar Krupp) enters the scene and puts all the heisters and passengers alike at gunpoint. However, Bibi and Kiki can get away with enough money from Moshosho’s van and rush back to the city, to the hospital. Unfortunately, their mother passes before they arrive.
There are series of scenes and parts of this story I take away. Both funny and tragic at the same time. 1) The scene when Padlock initiates the strategy for the heist to the girls.
Bibi, “You mean we pick pockets?”
Padlock, vehemently, “pickpockets I do every day.”
Padlock fidgets the Ghana-must-go bag and takes out three guns and…
“We are robbing the bus. And this is what we need.”
Kiki, “What if we got caught?”
“Do you want to save your mum?”
Kiki, “I don’t know how to use a gun.”
Bibi, “Me neither.”
You don’t have to know how to use a gun. Everybody fears guns. All you need is to point at them.
2) When Bibi and Kiki rushed to the hospital to present the 20,000 Cedis, their mother had already passed away. Both the girls cry for missing the chance to save their mother. This scene displays the tragic side of the story. The futile effort to bring money to save their mother.
Away Bus is like Soole (2021), a Nollywood production. At the peak of Christmas season, bus load of joyful passengers on their way to Enugu and looking forward to Christmas festivities, discovers a briefcase full of crispy United states dollar with no claimant. The presence of the unclaimed luggage creates mischievous thoughts in the hearts of all the passengers. They want to lay claim to the luggage by hook or crook, even if it takes to kill one another as we will find out. The Godly Catholic Sister, Veronica (Aduni Ade) wants to get hold of the loot since she couldn’t raise enough fund in Lagos for her orphanage. The most gruesome and dark part of the movie is the baby harvesting enterprise Ifeoma (Sola Sobowale) carries on, and probably, the unclaimed luggage full of dollars was a payment in lieu of the babies.
Bibi and Kiki show a talent that befits the part. I have seen Kiki in Afolayan’s Anikulapo (2022), though I couldn’t make her out of the ensemble. But here, in a leading role she takes her cue with a marvelous performance. But who carries the film to a finish line is Padlock. He puts unforgettable life into the story from his entrance to the finish. At the end of the story, Padlock picks the midget pastor’s pocket and runs away while pastor cries in his wake, “You will suffer! You will die!”