The themes of African history and the struggle for freedom that have been central to Haile Gerima’s films are given epic treatment in Sankofa. An African-American fashion model on a shoot along Ghana’s Atlantic coast falls under the spell of Sankofa, spiritual guardian of Cape Coast Castle, one of the most horrific embarkation points for the slave trade. Mona must return to the past in order to move forward (this, indeed, is the meaning of the Akan word sankofa). Traveling to the past as a house slave on a sugar plantation, she encounters the harsh existence and conflicted allegiances of the dehumanizing slavery system before she takes her fate into her own hands.