On a cool Thursday evening in Accra, the NYU Accra Garden buzzed with conversation as filmmakers, students, and members of the diaspora gathered for a Labone Dialogues Director Talkback. Fresh from the screening of Queen of Glory, the audience’s anticipation was palpable. At the center of the discussion stood Nana Mensah, writer, director, and lead actor of the award winning film, ready to unpack a journey shaped by grief, resilience, and creative determination.
Queen of Glory is a deeply affecting meditation on loss, identity, and the complicated pull of home. The film follows Sarah Obeng, a Ghanaian American woman whose carefully imagined future collapses after the sudden death of her mother. Left with the responsibility of inheriting her mother’s Christian bookstore in Accra while still dreaming of relocating to Ohio with a married lover, Sarah exists in a state of emotional suspension. Mensah opens the film with a deliberately fragmented structure, a visual and narrative reflection of a protagonist who is disconnected from her surroundings and herself.
As the story unfolds, Queen of Glory reveals itself less as a traditional drama and more as an intimate character study. Mensah treats grief not as a singular moment, but as a process that unfolds unevenly and without instruction. The emotional turning point comes when Sarah’s imagined escape dissolves, forcing her to confront the life she has been avoiding. Mensah describes this moment as a “cracking open,” when denial gives way to feeling, and acceptance slowly begins to take shape. It is in this quiet transformation that the film finds its strength.
During the talkback, moderated by NYU Accra Director Chiké Frankie Edozien, Mensah spoke candidly about the realities of bringing the film to life. Balancing the roles of actor, writer, and director required discipline and trust in the story itself. She explained that she learned to let the narrative lead, stepping into each role only when necessary, allowing the characters to breathe without overthinking or creative bias.
Financing, however, proved to be the most challenging aspect of the journey. Mensah described the fundraising process as a crash course in the business of art. Working within tight constraints, she found ways to adapt without compromising the film’s emotional core. The Christian bookstore at the heart of the story was inspired by her parents’ real life shop and became a key filming location. Friends were cast throughout the film, not out of necessity alone, but as a creative choice rooted in trust and familiarity. These decisions gave Queen of Glory its grounded authenticity.
Mensah’s journey also speaks to a broader conversation about Ghanaian cinema. While acknowledging the progress made within the local film industry, she emphasized the need for sustained investment and global platforms to elevate Ghanaian stories. Talent, she noted, is not in short supply, opportunity is.
With a completed script for her second feature, developed during a residency at dot.ateliers, Mensah is now looking ahead to a production bridging Accra and New York. Open to collaboration and new possibilities, she represents a new wave of filmmakers proving that even against the odds, there is glory in the grit.
