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Long live the dead!

Funerals are at the heart of Ghanaian culture and social life. Among the Frafra people n northern Ghana, funerals are an opportunity
to celebrate life!

Troubadour Stevo Atambire is a musician who travels from funeral to funeral comforting the relatives and friends of the deceased person.

With his improvised songs, using a traditional Kologo guitar, Stevo sings about the life of the deceased and assists family members in parting from their loved one.

Funerals typically take place during the dry season as the rainy season is reserved for farming only.

If someone dies in the rainy season, the deceased is buried in secret and the family has to wait until the next dry season to organize the public burial.

A funeral rite is often a grand ceremony.
The size of the funeral reveals the appreciation the community has towards the deceased person.

It can last for days or even weeks on end where a variety of artists such as war dancers, percussion bands and local artists perform.

A funeral is announced as a 'Home Call' or 'Call To Glory' actualizing the most glorious journey in one's life: A journey to the world of the ancestors.

When a person dies and has had a good life, he/she is included in a long line of ancestors and will be remembered that way.

Besides his funeral performances, Stevo is working on his own musical career. In his songs, he combines traditional sounds with contemporary music, making him popular among young and old.

It is Stevo's mission to spread his culture's music and values worldwide.

The film aims to reinforce this mission by showing how important music and rituals can be for a community, in good as well as in bad times.

  • Sofie Hanegreefs
    Director
    Corpus-A Quest for Eternity, How to fall apart, My aunts from Ghent, Forbidden sorrow, Borderland, From the Shadows
  • Kris Pannecoucke
    Director
    The long road of a salary, Congo
  • Sofie Hanegreefs
    Writer
  • Kris Pannecoucke
    Writer
  • Laurent Ingels
    Producer
    The long road of a salary, Congo
  • Stevo Atambire
    Key Cast
    "Stevo Atambire"
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Genres:
    Music, culture, traditions, funerals
  • Runtime:
    43 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    April 15, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    75,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Belgium
  • Country of Filming:
    Ghana
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Afrika Filmfestival, Flemish Unesco price winner, intangible heritage 2023
    Leuven
    Belgium
    April 30, 2023
    European Premiere
    Unesco prize winner 2023
  • Official selection Black Star International Filmfestival (BSIFF)
    Accra
    Ghana
    September 20, 2023
  • Ethnografic filmfestival
    Paris
    France
    March 30, 2024
  • World wide women's festival
    Phoenix
    United States
Director Biography - Sofie Hanegreefs, Kris Pannecoucke

Sofie Hanegreefs (1974) is a Belgium based filmmaker, artist and humanitarian. Her work spans documentary films, non-profit promotional work and visual art. She is strongly engaged with human rights, social, cultural & ecological themes and the arts.

Sofie is passionate about making connections and committed to crafting unique and sophisticated visual stories. Her work is thought provoking and emotionally engaging. She truly believes that films have the power to inspire change in our world and our lives.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

For the Fra Fra people in the north of Ghana, death does not simply mean the end of life. Dying is considered a journey, a transition into the world of the ancestors. When you die, you are included in a long line of ancestors and mothers and live on in the world of the bereaved.

A funeral is announced as a 'Home Call' or 'Call To Glory' which means 'returning home' and being called to the ultimate, glorious moment in one's life.

With this film, I want to show what music, rituals and cultural traditions can mean and how powerful and healing they can be in a collective grieving process; how music can transcend reason and very purely and directly address the heart and give expression to that which cannot be grasped.

The film is a journey that will open your eyes to the cultural richness of northern Ghana and to the importance of preserving it for future generations.