Foreign Matters
Imagine that you are a New York socialite, who grows up in a culture of Bergdorf’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, Broadway plays, fine dining, and your only job is to take photographs of an elitist society. Consider being thrust from this comfort zone and plopped into one of the most remote areas of Africa, in a culture so far removed from anything you could have ever imagine. Visualize how you would cope with the threat of scorpions nestling in your shoes, and assume you needed a guard to protect you against wild animals like elephants, rhinos, and leopards that roam through the thick golden grasses right outside your thatched-roof house. Think what you would do if you are surrounded by a culture that forces twelve-year-old girls to marry, and widows to have sex right after their husband’s funeral to break the bond of the husband’s spirit.
This is a screenplay of protagonist, Laura Redfield, a strong-minded, white woman in her mid-thirties who is up-rooted from her elite place of safety in America. Her husband, Owen Redfield, a successful businessman, has taken on a government project to over-see a water storage system in the remote regions of Ghana, Africa. Owen offers Laura what he thinks will be an exciting new world, but Laura finds herself challenging unchallenged traditions that African women have long tolerated: child marriages and sexual cleansing of widows. Laura compromises her life style, but she does not compromise her strong-will. Through her efforts, an Africa tribal chief is forced to acquiesce to long held traditions.