Cinema Board Slams Seizure Of 'Atta Mortuary Man� Movie

The Ghana Cinematography Exhibition Board of Control has condemned national security operatives who allegedly carried out a raid at the office of a film producer, making away with 13,000 copies of a new movie that had been released by the producer.

The title of the intercepted movie is �Atta Mortuary Man�.

The name �Atta Mortuary Man� became popular after the NDC�s Founder and Former President Mr. Jerry John Rawlings, made reference to an �Atta� friend of his, who works in the mortuary at the 37 Military Hospital during a speech at the NDC�s Congress in Tamale in 2010.

Another film producer, Kofi Asamoah fears his new movie titled �Oh Uncle Atta� may also be prevented from being released onto the market although it has no political connotation.

Mr. Ken Addy, a member of the Ghana Cinematography Exhibition Board of Control told Citi News the content of the movie �Atta Mortuary Man� has nothing to do with politics.

He said the action of the national security officers was unwarranted.

�This film has gone through the right process. It has come through the Board. It has been previewed and classified and it has been given permission to be put out on the open market. I again checked with the Secretariat whether anybody from the National Security contacted the Secretariat on this issue before the action that was taken, and the answer was 'No', which I feel very hurt about, because otherwise what is the purpose of the body?

"The Body is to regulate films that come into the open market and this film has gone through the process. So if anything at all, the National Security could have checked and then the Board would have made it known to them that the content of the film has no bearing on any particular person, but they didn�t and I feel very sad about that" he said.

�The Board would therefore speak to the National Security to find out why they did that because as at now, I do not know their reasons for what they did,� he added.

Checks by Citifmonline.com indicate the �Atta Mortuary Man� is a comedy in which the lead actor, Agya Koo, playing the role of Atta, is a susu collector who after fraudulently embezzling the amounts he had collected from the residents decided to ran away from the vicinity. Finding himself in a new locality, he had to pursue other jobs for a living and settled on being a mortuary man.

Meanwhile, Deputy Information Minister Baba Jamal has revealed in an interview with Peace FM Monday that the 13,000 copies of the movie were seized because the producer did not complete censorship procedures.

He further explained that though the movie itself had been censored and approved by the Cinematography Board, its posters and adverts had not yet been scrutinised since the producer did not make them available at the time the movie was under scrutiny.

Mr Jamal said until the adverts and posters have been properly censored, the movie should not be sold.

Source: Citifmonline.com