How do you take a lovely seaside village in Ghana with it’s fun loving people, football playing innocent school children who have to get home in time so their mothers do not beat them, a friendly foreigner who offers a fun road trip, and make a film out of this that makes the audiences sit on the edge of their seats in tension?

We caught up with Anthony Nti, Director of the film, ‘Da Yie’, for an exclusive interview, to find out.

“‘Da Yie’ is my graduation film, and is based on my childhood in Ghana, so I was looking for someone like me,” says Anthony. “We did an open cast call in a primary school. My cousin knew the headmaster. We wrote down the characteristics of the two child characters, and one of them had to be able to play good football, rap, be like super enthusiastic, you know, like sharp with words (snaps his fingers). The teacher read the characteristics, and he said, ‘Can a girl come, also?’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, man, if it fits, why not?’ and the first person that walked into the casting room was Matilda. She walked in and we were like we have this rap thing, should we write something for you, do you have your own stuff , and she had her own rap stuff, she started rapping, it was like, ‘Oh my God, this is like a diamond!’ And so it became Matilda. And it still fitted the film, and her presence was so amazing and it just made sense for her to play that role.”

But directing non-actors could be a daunting task, right? Not for Anthony. “I’ve been working with kids for a while now. You know, my previous films, my previous short films, I’ve done some videos, narrative video clips, where I worked with kids. In Belgium, in Antwerp where I live, we do like workshops for the kids, you know, kids who are non-actors. At the end of the workshop, we always do a film project. Every time I work with kids, I learn so much. With kids, if a kid doesn’t understand, he doesn’t understand. And so, for me, it is learning how to communicate with kids that is most exciting.”

‘Da Yie’ is the story of how two innocent children, for different reasons, end up going on a road trip with a foreigner for the evening. They have a lot of fun and as night falls, the foreigner has to deliver them to his masters in a house full of shady characters. The foreigner realises the kids are not cut out for the task these masters have in mind for them, and so tries to leave the house, only to be beaten and stopped. The kids escape in the melee, and have to make their way home on foot, all alone, in the dark of night.

When they finally reach home, and the audience heaves a sigh of relief, they wish each other ‘Da Yie’. With a glint in the eye, Anthony says, “Da Yie is Akan for Good Night. If you have seen the film, it takes place in the day, and at night. Throughout the journey, these kids go through the road trip, the excitement, which kinda ends well, so they had a good night, you know. Also, those are the last words the characters exchange in the film, despite going through so much, they do wish each other good night. It just fitted. It made sense to call the film Good Night, and that’s why we went for Da Yie.”

Anthony plays a window cleaner cameo in the film, and related an incident to us regarding this cameo. “To be honest with you, we were a small crew of five, you know. We were in traffic. We had a car in front and a car behind, and my nephews were in the car, and I said, OK, I’ll do it. It was so much fun, because it was so chaotic. We just did the shoot. And the people around were like, ‘Why are you doing it? Why are you being disrespectful to him? He just wants to clean the window.’ And I’m like ‘Yeah. Beat him up.’ (laughs). It was fun, but I wouldn’t have played it if we had others to do it.”

The project was ably supported by his extended family in Ghana. He is grateful to his family for helping out. “They are so proud, you know. Do you wanna hear a funny story? When I got the news that we were shortlisted, it was in the night. So, I called my family, and they were sleeping obviously. My Dad called me back, and you know, me calling Dad late, he thought there was something wrong, something happened, you know. He was like, ‘You called?’. I am like, ‘Dad, we are shortlisted for the Oscars!!’ and he goes, ‘Aaa… congrats … let me call you back in the morning, I’m too sleepy now.’ The next day, of course, there were so many phone calls, so much joy. Yeah, everybody was super happy, because they saw the project growing from the beginning.”

Anthony is working on a feature next. “Any format, as long as I can tell a story,” he asserts.