Testament

A subtitle, 'The War Zone of Memories', gives a better indication of this film's fragmentary, poetic style, in which a plot about a television journalist's quest for an interview is interspersed with recurrent images of conflict and renewed faith. The setting is Ghana, and Abena (Rogers) has returned to her native land from Britain in order to interview Werner Herzog on location with Cobra Verde. But Herzog proves elusive, leaving Abena with time to ponder her hasty departure from Ghana following the collapse of the Nkrumah regime and her subsequent arrest by the military. Akomfrah and the Black Audio Film Collective offer the complex ethical and emotional issues in telling flashes and seemingly inconclusive discussions. Abena's dilemma and her political past are revealed only gradually, and the process of exposition, while sometimes bewildering, is always fascinating. Ambitious and visually inventive, this acutely personal tale of discovery is marred only by Rogers' rather lifeless performance.