All 13,000 copies of the controversial movie, “Atta Mortuary Man”, have been released to the owners nearly two weeks after they were confiscated by unidentified security men.
The Executive Producer of the Movie, Philip Gborku, told Citi News the release on Friday June 10, was facilitated by the National Security, which has denied it carried out the raid.
He said no conditions were given for the release except that they were given an advice he was not willing to explain further.
“Today around 3:00pm, the order came that it should be released to us after several questioning. There was no condition attached but we were given a personal advice. They really encouraged us. They are very nice people. People normally think the National Security always intimidates people but it’s far from that. They encouraged us and told us to do nice productions. It was a kind advice they gave to us.
“I didn’t personally listen to any national security officials denying that they were not involved in the raid, but as far as we are concerned, everything was handled by the National Security. We went to the Castle annex for the order and came to the Striking Force to collect the CDs” he said.
Mr. Gborku said the controversy surrounding the movie has given it the hype it deserves and they hope this will translate into good sales.
“Every misfortune is a blessing. Even though we have gone thropuy7gh a lot of struggles and travelling this has been very tiresome, at the end of the day, a lot of people have heard of the Movie and we are hoping it will translate into the market”.
He said Ghanaians can now patronize the movie which is available on the market.
The 13,000 copies were confiscated from the offices of the Film Distributor, Nyankonton Films, at the Opera Square in Accra on Saturday May 28.
The reason for the seizure still remains unclear but many have suggested that it was seen as a mockery of the President, Professor John Evans Atta Mills.
A Deputy Information Minister, Baba Jamal, explained that the movies were seized because the Producers did not complete censorship procedures.
According to him, although the movie itself had been censored and approved by the Cinematograph 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 had been properly censored, the movie could not be sold. He later said the Producers had also evaded taxes.
But his explanations were not accepted by the Ghana Cinematograph Exhibition Board of Control.
It condemned the raid on the offices of the film distributor, Nyankonton Films, and accused the Minister of blatantly disregarding the board to carry out an illegal exercise.
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 had also expressed fears his new movie titled “Oh Uncle Atta” was going to be prevented from being released onto the market although it has no political connotation.
“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.
Source: citifmonline
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