Project Detail

Rituals of Fire

Synopsis

Rituals Of Fire began the long process to screen five years ago when writer-director Joel Aryeetey, who has been making shorts and music videos through his own company for eight years, returned from working in Africa. Aryeetey penned a story about an African-American woman (Joyce Lee) living in London who longs to move to Africa, a desire that brings her into conflict with her Ghanaian-born husband (David Dontoh), a successful architect. When his firm asks him to go to Africa to head up one of its branches, disturbing memories of his childhood begin to haunt him. Once in Africa, he sinks deeper into depression and his wife seeks help from a traditional witch doctor, thus unravelling the secret behind her husband's torment.



"The film attempts to explore the spiritual aspects of African life," says Aryeetey. "My family came to London from Ghana when I was little and some of them have quite ambivalent feelings about Africa because they feel the traditions hinder progress. On the other hand, there are a lot of black people in America who have that yearning to return to the land of their origins. I wanted to address both sides."



Shot in London and Ghana over a three-month period, the film almost fell apart when Aryeetey ran out of money half-way through the Ghanaian leg of the shoot. With 90% of his crew forced to return to London, he raised support from private companies and individuals there with whom he had worked in the past.



The film premiered at the Philadelphia Film Festival in July.

Details

Year
2000
Type of project
Features
Director
Joel Aryeetey
Composer
Patrick Wood.
Dir
Joel Aryeetey. 2000. 35mm. 90mins. Prod/scr: Aryeetey. Co-dir: Tom Ribeiro. DoP: Chris Hesse, William Sefa. Prod des: Ebo Quansah. Ed: Acton Tetteh. Main cast: David Dontoh, Joyce Lee, Alice Asiedu, Owusu Coby. Budget: £105,000. Funding: Private sources.

Categories

Production Status

Production Company

LJ PICTURES INTERNATIONAL 448 Summerwood Road Isleworth, Middlesex TW7 7QY Tel: (44) 20 8580 2927 Fax: (44) 20 8560 4017 Email: odolace@hotmail.com

Page updates

This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.

See also

You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.

A man in a hospital chair sings surrounded by patients and hospital staff Stuck!

Director: Matt Nicholas

Year: 2026

Dr. Atkins, the hospital’s expert in removing “foreign objects”, finds himself in a bind when he forgets to get a present for his big wedding anniversary. When the perfect gift presents itself inside a patient, will he be willing to risk it all for love?

Emma emerges from her baptism. Born in Fire

Director: David Skynner

Year: 2026

A 50-year-old widow, Emma, has lost everything since her husband, Sam, was killed and her final refuge, a holiday lodge in Cornwall is due to be repossessed too. She is harried by debt collectors, seeing things, agoraphobic, and convinced she is losing her mind. Desperate, she calls for help from any God listening, and in a dark wood, something hears her. Her dead husband is haunting her and appears and talks to her in the dead of night. Emma’s starts to experience dreams of a magical wood and strange figures of butterflies and men made from twigs start to appear in and around the lodge. Sam is advising that she must let go of the old, in order let a new life in, but this terrifies Emma. Emma starts to see moments from her future; each bleaker than the last and fears for her own survival. With eviction imminent, Emma agrees she must surrender, whatever that might mean. A creature made from forest appears and helps her to escape. She follows it into the magical wood from her dreams and is baptised in a beautiful river. When she emerges, she is reborn and ready for her new life.

Bertie Taylor-Smith, Alex Paper Cut

Director: Jack Sain

Year: 2026

Long-lost siblings meet for dinner. They end the night in drag. By sunrise, a shocking revelation tests the limits of love and acceptance. PAPER CUT is a debut feature from queer British writer-director Jack Sain. Alex has just found Alice - the birth sister he never knew existed - living four tube stops away. He invites her and her boyfriend over for dinner at the comfortable London home he shares with his boyfriend Sasha. Everyone is on their best behaviour. Everyone has rehearsed. By midnight, all four of them are in drag at a queer nightclub. By 5am, something comes to light that none of them can take back. The film puts social satire through an experimental lens, with a propulsive original score and formally adventurous set pieces, including a split-screen sequence. It asks what happens when people who pride themselves on openness are confronted with something they cannot absorb. The cast includes legendary trans actress Adèle Anderson, Olivier Award nominee and longtime member of cabaret trio Fascinating Aïda, and Barney White of ITV's Professor T - pairing established stage and screen talent with brilliant newcomers.