My experience at Silverbird Accra watching The Woman King by Kamo

I went to watch 'The Woman King' on Saturday night at the Silverbird cinema in Accra Mall in October 2022.

The film started on time and unlike UK cinemas, this one did not use up 15 to 20 minutes on adverts.

Strong female cast The film was good with a strong female cast (including Viola Davis, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim, and Jayme Lawson, and leading man John Boyega), and also majority American African and African American.

There were very good performances from most of the actors. A good storyline based on a true story. (No spoiler here.)

she and her friend provided me with full-blown commentary and analysis about what was happening on screen.

This was my first time in a cinema in Ghana since the mid 90s and I do not recall the cinema being like a family room. The woman to my right made and received a telephone call had a long conversation.

This affected my experience adversely. In the latter part of the film, with all phone calls completed, she and her friend to her right provided me with full-blown commentary and analysis about what was happening on screen.

The Woman King tells the story of the Agojie, an elite, all-woman army in the West African kingdom of Dahomey. Photo by Chris Hellier / Corbis via Getty Images

Credit roll

That was bad enough, but there were many incidents of people talking throughout the film.

As soon as the credits started, the lights were switched on in the auditorium and the audience begun to disperse.

I decided to read the credits on a screen with poor visibility... suddenly, there is another scene from the film which was significant and made the ending a little more meaningful.

Have you watched the film? What did you think?