Film Mischief: Denzel Owoo’s Fofo Means Father opens with calm images of nature: of tall trees, a stretch of green field, and then the structure of a tall man standing in the frame. The air feels still, almost meditative, until the scene shifts and we find ourselves in what looks like a behind-the-scenes shoot. We already know from his introduction that the man is Fofo Gavua, a Ghanaian filmmaker. What begins as a casual portrait of an artist at work quietly unfolds into something deeper: a film about fragility and the work one has to put to stay alive.
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At first, there’s the impression that this is simply a filmmaker filming another filmmaker. But director Denzel Owoo finds something more intimate here. Fofo Means Father is less about craft and more about openness. The film is about a man trying to find language for his pain and space for healing from bipolar disorder.
Owoo shot the entire short on an iPhone 11, and while the visual quality lacks the gloss of traditional documentary filmmaking, it works for what the film is: raw and sincere. There’s a sense that the film wasn’t scripted, scenes flowing a bit disjointedly, like a discombobulated whole.
Fofo talks about struggling with mental health, about being told he’s “not man enough” for thinking about suicide. We see him at a local gym, lifting weights, throwing tyres, trying to rebuild himself. Later, he picks two children from school. We do not know who they are. Maybe his, maybe not.
A question lingers: why has Owoo chosen to tell Fofo Gavua’s story now? Why Fofo? Why this subject? The film doesn’t try to answer any of these questions. Perhaps it’s Owoo’s decision to let the audience sit with that uncertainty. What we’re only left with, finally, is a closing title card that reads: “In Ghana, less than 2% of people with bipolar disorder get treatment.”
The editing is loose, the sound imperfect, but there’s an undeniable honesty that holds the film together. It’s as if Owoo pressed record not to create a perfect product but to document a fragile truth. His director’s note later confirms this: the film began as an experiment and became an emotional experience neither he nor Fofo could have planned.
In less than ten minutes, Fofo Means Father becomes an understated study of masculinity and vulnerability. It gently rejects the idea that African men must always be strong, stoic, or unfeeling. What we see instead is a man trying to make sense of himself, not through the lens of heroism but through the quiet work of staying alive.
Fofo Means Father screened at The Annual Film Mischief 2025.
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Side Musings
- Something about Fofo’s laughter feels diabolic, but it’s certainly the laughter of brokenness.
- Fofo’s sadness seems as imposing in structure as he is in frame–nothing small at all.
