Peter Sedufia’s Aloe Vera (Ghana, 2020) is a 108-minute feature film that brings to the screen a romantic comedy beyond the drama of a divided village.
The story begins with a simple children’s game that will divide an entire village into two parts: the aloes identified in blue and the veras in yellow. From then on, no one is allowed to go to the other zone and no one is allowed to have any relationship with those of the other zone. The inhabitants of this village have now become enemies because of commonplace misunderstandings. It is in this conflicting environment that an aloe, named Aloewin, and a vera named Veralin will live their improbable love in the « Romeo and Juliet » style.
In this film, where we feel like an African version of Alain Chabat’s film RRRrrr (his two films evoke the living together with particular treatments through humor), the soundtrack really stood out, sometimes with original songs from both parts of the film, sometimes with musical effects. A voiceover, as in any story, sets the scene at the beginning of the film, while the end of this filmic work will be marked by a musical clip.
In addition to the colorful, simple and creative settings, the casting of Aloe Vera is really successful and we see the two main characters of the film Keteke, a feature film by the same director, Peter Sedufia.

Kosi Sessi

Correction:
Charles Ayetan